Wings of Mighty Flame
by Alpha Centauri
Summary: Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...
1. Chapter 1: Spark

**A.C.**: Reason for writing this besides giving myself more things to procrastinate on... hmm... I didn't want Hughes to die? Well... I got sorta tired of writing/reading all these romantic themes and decided that there is always room for those that are not romantic or whatever. Or I'm making room (there might be some love-happy scenes ;.;). Either way... I've just gave myself more work -groans-

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

Edward woke up to complete darkness in which not even his brother Alsphonse was present in. Muttering about ungrateful little brothers, the Fullmetal Alchemist stretched like a feline before dusting himself up to look around.

Nothing,

He could see absolutely nothing.

Cursing the fact that it was new moon and thus no moonlight to guide his way, he stumbled about in the general direction of the door (or where he thought it was) before crashing into a stack of books.

The lights immediately clicked on and the suit of armor that Ed called his brother poked his horned head in, looking around with inquisitive red eyes.

"brother? Are you still in here?"

"Of course I'm in here Al! Where did you think I was!" raged Ed, picking up a thin book to throw at his little brother before thinking better of it. Not only would it be a waste of breath on his part, it wouldn't leave a single mark on the metallic surface should the bound papers contact Al.

"brother, Winry's calling us for dinner."

On cue, the waft of delicious aromas came flooding in the room. Complete with the fruity scent of a sugary and cavity inducing desert still in the oven and the absence of the dreaded dairy product known as milk.

"Tell her I'm coming,"

Growling he flipped the book over, about to set it down when he realized that there was a sticky note on it.

'_For your research, M.R.'_

Ed's pulse quickened, he slowly peeled the note off with his automail fingers.

'_Diary of Phoenix Alchemist'_ was written in neat letters below.

-

-

For the sake of Al, Ed decided to keep the diary a secret. Who knew? It could be a bum steer, what little hope the diary sparked could be extinguished in a second. If it was a prank, who could be this cruel as to pull this joke on them? As far as he knew, not many knew about the Elric brother's mission to find the legendary stone. And those that knew... he made a face when his thoughts landed squarely on the face of his superior.

Not even he could be that mean could he?

Tossing and turning in his bed, he finally sat up and turned on a small lamp by his bedside. Hesitating, in case Alsphonse suddenly showed up from his daily -nightly prowl in the library,(and saving a few kittens along the way) he opened the cover and began to read.

-

-

'_Property of the Phoenix Alchemist_

_Dear whom this may concern, _

_If you are not me, please close this diary and hope that I don't find out. If I find out that you had read this well... I'm sure you can think of plenty of ways I hurt you without the necessarily of killing you. If you are me or if I am dead by the time someone finds this, you may read it. I don't recommend it though, so close it while you have the chance, don't make the mistake Adam and Eve did. _

_Ignorance is a bliss'_

-

-

The train roared as it pounded down the tracks, the country background stretching out far as one's eyes could see. Beneath the starry cover of the night, herds of cows roamed on the grassy hills, occasionally chasing away a stray dog before gorging themselves on the new grass.

Slightly envious of the cows, he turned to rub his shoulder, straightening out the knots before drifting into an uneasy sleep. He can only hope that he makes it to Central Head Quarters before the day is seized by night once more.

The salty sent of the sea teases him and he awakens briefly. Realizing that it was but a dream he sighs, his voice muffled against the tea stained seat.

White gulls and the lure of the tides. It was a dream, but was it really?

* * *

**(edit)A.C.:** changed 'ni-san' to brother... bother


	2. Chapter 2: Ember

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

_1908 February 17th I think... Tuesday, I'm not sure_

_On a train, don't know how long I've been sleeping and don't really care._

_Me and a couple of other alchemists are being shipped to end this seven year war. Mom's on the other side giving me a look, she says it's not manly to keep things like diaries. Women...Which reminds me, how come there aren't many sexy woman alchemists? Ones that are not your moms and all that? A glare this time, geeze am I that easy to read or something? Checking my arm, will write more later._

_-Ryan_

_-_

_-_

The familiar words of complaints lulled Ed into sleep. Under the moonless night he slept, his fair features still illuminated in the florescent bulb of the night stand. Al came in later to turn off the light and tuck Ed in.

"Silly brother."

-

-

Ed stretched and yawned as they boarded the train towards Dublith. The Hughes family, Armstrong and others waved farewell as the train began to hiss, the wheels rolling towards their destination leagues ahead.

-

-

Paper drops from his hands, one name rings through out his skull as it frightfully chases away the tiredness from his eyes.

'Juliet Douglass'

-

-

The man knows too much. Those who knew too much had to be silenced. They had been given orders, the brunette with slitted purple eyes picked up the phone. The fuhrer is looking out the window. There is a car outside.

-

-

_I don't know what date it is anymore. No one keeps track of time, the desert is an ageless place under the sky. There is nothing out here. Water is scarce, precious, they tell us it's actually the monsoon season. Only an hour to collect the precious liquid before we're let loose like hounds across the sand. We kill, we annihilate, the dead don't bury each other, but they do in this place. Rain and then the bell. Time to make fire. _

_-Ryan_

-

-

Alsphonse spies the journal while Edward sleeps. When the elder blonde awakes, the suit of armor confronts him about it. The elder Elric explains that he didn't want to raise anyone's hopes, but he can see, anyone could see the hope flaring in the gold irises.

Winry snores softly in sleep

-

-

Hughes is called to the central building where the fuhrer's secretary Juliet Douglass greets him, granting allowances for him to visit the infamous traitor, the Crystal Alchemist.

Along the way Maes starts a frank conversation with the brunette about the Ishival Massacre. How a a single bullet from a soldier's gun started a revolution. How for seven long years they had killed and had been killed for that child, the bullet, the gun.

How in records she died two years before the war.

She leads him to a door but he does not open it, he faces her fully.

"Who are you?"

-

-

He frantically climbs up the stairs, a certain blonde would kill him for this but there was too much at stake. He rubs his shoulder and hides behind a wall when a light hearted footsteps of an androgynous teenager twists and contorts in those of Second Lieutenant Maria Ross.

Homunculus are real

-

-

The door opens, it's a small wonder it hasn't been torn off it's hinges. Only years of training helps him get out of a way unscathed.

"How do you do? Or should I say goodbye instead?"

Gracia,

Elysia...

Roy...

No goodbyes, not yet...!

His shoulder has three bloody gouges on it. A buxom woman stand before him staring at him with her cat like eyes. Her unusually long nails are covered in blood, his blood. They are outstretched and are aiming for his heart. His heart slams radically between his ribs.

"Shit!"

His wrists snap and a throwing knife buries itself in her head.

Gunshots from behind him, the tall woman slumps on the wall. Juliet Douglass moves sideways as Maria Ross bears the smoking barrel on her just before following her wounded superior.

"That's my line..."

The taller woman's hands rise up to pluck the knife from her brow. She licks away the squirt of blood that comes out along with the blade.

"Not bad..."

The shorter woman stares expectantly at her.

There is an explosion, the world goes up in flames.

-

-

_Sometime, some day_

_Kimbley tells me to get my head out of my ass and start working. He tells me that the war isn't going to end itself. Funny thought, coming from him... he says he likes the sound of things going 'boom' aside from him, it looks like I'm the only one who specializes in pyrokinetic powers and combustion. He asked how I made fire with water, I told him that I was a phoenix._

_He laughed_

_-Ryan_

-

-

Night falls. The indigo blanket cocoons everything. Through the dark, everything blends together into one whole being before scattering. All is one and one is all. Alsphonse stares outside at the passing hills of black.

-

-

They make their way to an empty phone booth. It is deserted, no one will be hurt, no one will see anything. He would be the single sacrifice of this night. Second Lieutenant Maria Ross clicks off the safety.

"We should get to a safer place."

A knife is at her neck.

Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes shakes as the blade bites the pale skin and makes it bleed.

"Who are you?"

"Who...? I'm Second Lieutenant Maria Ross."

"No you're not, Second Lieutenant Ross has a birthmark under her left eye."

The fake Ross looks baffled for a moment. She shrugs before touching her upper left cheek. She pulls the finger away in a flash of alchemic light revealing a mole where there had been a layer of clean skin.

"Ah... How careless of me. Is..."

The knife sinks and is pulled away. The fake Ross' neck artery has been severed. She drops like a bag of stone, twitching as the blood drains out of her vein.

"I can't die here."

The gold eyed man turns towards the phone booth, unaware that his favorite hobby has become the death of him. A photo slips out his pocket. It's a lovely one, not like the usual ones of Elysia that you can stack together and make a movie clip of it when you skim through them fast. It was a family picture.

The fallen figure's hand twitches.

-

-

_Mom got injured, she's being sent back. She tells me to be strong and try to keep my head above the water. She made Crystal promise that he would take care of me. She gave me one last alchemic boost as a gift, she wishes me well. She said she would pray for the war to end. _

_So far I've been lucky, I haven't lost anyone yet. How long this freak streak of fortune go on? Strongarm looks like he can't hold on much longer, Crimson's... Crimson, Flame almost died, I can tell Crystal's being depressed, IronBlood's loosing it, and so many others indulging in this fanatic mass eradication. _

_We were called into end this war,_

_We will end it._

_-Ryan_

-

-

Maes turns around to face his wife. An impostor with blue lightning still lancing across her alchemitised form. Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes' face collapses in a moment of grief. A moment enough for the fake Gracia to smile at him like the real one. Only this smile opens slyly to reveal a mouth full of fangs.

"Nice effects aren't they Lieutenant Colonel Hughes?"

The throwing knife is balanced on his middle finger still precariously hidden beneath the wrist cuffs of his uniform.

"You're not going to stab your wife are you?"

His mind screams that she's a fake, it's not Gracia,

Not Gracia

His heart stops him

His heart would be the death of him.

Flames erupt, blowing the not Gracia clear away from him. She screams in agony as her skin pops, scabbing and re-scabbing over the extensive burns. A rough hand grabs his wrist and drags him out of there.

Roy...


	3. Chapter 3: Glow

**A.C.**: ...yay... :)

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

"Roy!"

Disbelief

Rational when you think about it

The Xingese man was supposed to be stationed in East.

Roy nods briefly before putting on a standard military hat. He pushes it downwards to hide his eyes.

"Hold on."

He steps on the acceleration.

-

-

_Days blend into nights of drunken songs and heartbroken tears. Always the same nothing changes. Today I had some foot soldiers come with me for experience. Actually it was there mission to protect me from stray Ishival bullets but no one mentioned that. They're not allowed to, they don't want to repeat the fact that alchemists were brought in to end this war. They don't want to say that our lives are worth more. _

_Besides, us alchemists get violent when set up with body guards. Last time Crimson had any at all, he nearly turned all of them into bombs. Silver somehow ditched his group, Blackarrow told his superior off. Mother, Flame and I nearly threw a fit when a group was assigned to us. But I can't say anything now._

_We were in the Northern quadrant when the ambush assault occurred. A ragtag group of Ishivals opened fire on us. Two died while trying to protect me as human shields. I shot the snipers off the rooftops. The remaining three were wondering why I didn't just roast them alive. Alchemists are really disgusting eh?_

_End result, out of five that was sent with me, only one survived. A gangly blonde one, I didn't get his name, I don't want to,_

_-Ryan_

-

-

"Who do you think he was?"

"Hm?"

In the background there are few houses. Small farms scattered across the prairie. It's a homey scene. Reminds them of their home. The river, and the orange sunset.

"The Phoenix Alchemist, the guy with the initials M.R."

"It could be a woman brother."

"Yeah but the only one I can think of right now is Maria Ross. I'm pretty sure she's not it. Besides, I doubt that her nickname is Ryan."

"Ah right," Alsphonse scratched his metal head sheepishly. "Well I don't know anyone named Ryan."

"Neither do I, assuming that Ryan is his first name. His initials are M.R. See."

"Do you think teacher knows?"

"With all the tongue lashing she gave us about state alchemists?"

"There must be a reason for that."

"hmm..."

-

-

After much confusion on both sides of the party, after a series of negotiation Edward, Alsphonse, and Winry are taken in by the Elric's teacher Izumi. As the sun sets, the mallow red disk sinking in the horizon, Izumi confronts the siblings.

"Alsphonse your body's hollow, Edward, your right arm is an automail."

The wind weaves through the thin stalks like a slippery snake through grass.

The two guiltily stare down at the ground.

"...sorry..."

-

-

Hughes' residence

All was quiet,

No one was there yet

He hoped...

Hughes rushes out the car, Mustang follows a length behind with leisure that has been lost on the gold eyed man.

The door is quickly unlocked, Hughes bursts into the living room to see Major Armstrong playing with little Elysia.

Gracia is calmly sipping tea while listening to one of Armstrong's numerous speeches about his family's heroic feats.

For one precious moment Hughes believes death might have been a preferable choice. But then he realizes how much he missed the jolly ramblings from the muscular blonde and he collapses onto the floor, eyes full of tears as he tries to wipe them away.

Gracia looks concerned,

Elysia jumps from the couch and into her father's hug.

He easily picks her up and in two strides, reaches over to Gracia and hugs her sobbing.

-

-

"You have to get out of here."

"There's no where to hide Roy, they... they're not human."

"You have to get out... they'll say you're a traitor, they'll hunt you down like a dog."

"Come with us"

"I can't..."

"..."

"Maes, remember when you told me that you would support me from the bottom?"

-

-

_Before life in the military I have never seen a sunrise. Sure my mother is in the military, wakes up like a clockwork. Sure I've heard of the legendary proceedings in which the big fireball of gas rises from the horizon to complete it's cycle from east to west. Actually it turns out that it's us that's doing all the cycles, but I digress, before military I've never seen a sunrise. Sunset suits me more I think, both in color and mind._

_Kimbley's laughing over my shoulder, the bastard._

_-Ryan_

-

-

"Brother? Are you ok?"

An island in the middle of a lake. They could use alchemy to escape, could, but sometimes it was good to wallow in memories. Sometimes it was good to let the thoughts wash over you like generic soap turned generic foam before rubbing it away in a shower of generic water.

Al...

"I'm fine,"

A hand of flesh, his left hand holds a thin book with many missing pages physically and spiritually.

"It's not coded but it's harder to understand that way, he says he's been in the Ishival war... I don't know what that has to do with the philosopher's stone."

The book is a mystery, an hidden archive of knowledge that Edward is fearful to penetrate. He does not know where the emotion comes from but knows that it bars him from figuring out too much too soon. Even know with Alsphonse's help he can barely read entries one by one.

"Don't worry brother, we'll figure something out."

As he repeats the words over and over again in his mind he realizes, it's not the standard language of Amestris.

-

-

_So many are dead, we set up camp in one of the abandoned villages still stable enough to support mud caked buildings. Dead bodies are everywhere. We drew up twigs to see who would get the cleaning duty. As fate would have it me and Crimson drew the role. Crimson seems pretty happy to explode corpses, he looks happy touching the warm bodies heated by the sun. _

_A body burns, another, then another. The sun sinks, the moon, stars come out but we don't stop, we can't, we dare not. I know that in some deep, dark ways that even Kimbley realizes that. How this madness has overtaken us all. How he is another example on how to survive, how much I needed someone to hate._

_We have another sector to clean tomorrow._

_-Ryan_

-

-

Havoc is supposed to be taking a day off. He was working his ass off at the office, forging Mustang's signature while trying to look short and inconspicuous at the same time. Fortunately for him all the people who are sent to question him are those of lower rank. He doesn't have to stand up, nor does he have to salute and look at the other soldier in the eye. He takes an early leave, trusting Hawkeye to take care of matters back at the office. Farman tails him to clean up any trails.

Mustang is elsewhere smuggling Hughes and his family out of Amestris.

-

-

"You sure you're not coming with us?"

"I'm trying to save the world, you can come back when I become the fuhrer"

"But then I'll never get to come back...!"

"..."

"Oy, Roy... I promised to support you from the bottom remember? All the way to the top."

"All the way to the top... I remember..."

A sigh

"Promise me you won't die"

"I'm going to be fuhrer, I won't die"

"I'm glad..."

"Maes, thanks..."

"For what?"

"For everything."

The train whistles loudly, a Xingese man is seen waving at a family of three brunettes. Elysia waves excitedly as the figure of her uncle Roy fades from her childish view.

"Bye uncle Roy!"

"You're welcome Roy... and thanks..."

-

-

A boy with a crop of silky black hair that reached his knees.

A boy with blue violet eyes, the dreaded eyes from the gate.

A boy with _his_ arm, _his_ leg, parading around Curtis household.

A homunculus that can use alchemy,

Wrath... a dangerous weapon,

His master's deadly secret

-

-

"Teacher?"

"Hmm? Is this about Wrath?"

"No... I just wanted to know, have you ever heard about a State Alchemist named Phoenix?"

"..."

"Teacher?"

"...He's the reason why I didn't want to be a dog of the military."


	4. Chapter 4: Flare

**A.C.**: Weird chapter ahead, I hate school...

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

"The Phoenix is a legend, he supposedly died sometime after the war."

"How do you know him?"

"After the war, we met briefly, Dante was trying to convince me to become a State Alchemist. He warned me in private not to join."

"Who was he?"

"A man, something of a legend,"

There was a bittersweet smile

"He was a phoenix."

Edward's eyes drew a blank.

-

-

_We're on the move, always on the move. We can't use animals for transport, too much supplies involved, so we make do on foot. Doctors work overtime trying to take care of us all, trying not to say increase the intake of fluids because we're in a desert. Trying not to say stay out of the sun because we're in a desert. They're nice people, only problem is with them taking in strays._

_Ha, what am I saying? Ironblood is livid at the treatment of Ishivals doctors come across. He once gave a speech saying that we should not treat them like fellow human beings, that they're heretical and thus treated as such. Shoot on sight._

_But what have they done to deserve all this? Even now, seven years later, battle worn veterans ask the same question. This war started over the blood of a child, why? Who shot the poor kid? Why weren't they punished for it? Where are they now?_

_-Ryan_

-

-

Stealth had always been more of Maes' thing. Roy can only hope that the same stealth will keep the family over the course of next few weeks.

They parted at an unimportant train station somewhere in the east. Hopefully at the furthest station, they will get off and make attempts to cross the great desert.

Roy closes his eyes as he heads over to his car.

The sun is barely rising against the hills of sand and gravel.

A bloody sun much like the one in Ishival.

-

-

Questions come in thick and fast, visits from higher ups, disapproving glances from Hawkeye whenever she hears the pompous knocks. As the best friend and comrade of traitor Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, he is taken in for inquiry over the last actions of the eccentric man.

Those who served under him, Vato Farman, Maria Ross, Denny Broche, and even Alex Armstrong have said to have been questioned. The questions are heated and fast, leaving the more less experienced co workers disoriented while the veterans try not to give too much away while explaining.

Roy is like a sturdy rock, remarking that Maes Hughes would have had a reason.

They are excused, but not spared the suspicious glances.

Roy Mustang promptly goes back to editing Edward's report, praying for the Hughe's family.

The office is unusually quiet that night.

-

-

Scotch always. A glass, maybe two.

Lazy slurps of the burning liquid as they exchange news.

Sometimes sharing of photos too.

But tonight he's alone, he feels a twinge of regret. But at least he doesn't feel the stabs of grief tearing his heart apart. He drains his glass and asks for another,

The cup is already blurring.

_-_

_-_

_It's dark outside. Odd thing to say but I can think of nothing else to write down. I don't bother trying to keep track of the days I've been here. The marks on my bed frame have long since left alone. Other alchemists are similarly down trodden. The war is taking toll on us all._

_No, not war, a massacre._

_A complete eradication of a race._

_There was a small boy..._

_He shouldn't have died._

_-Ryan_

_-_

_-_

It isn't the usual field of greens and poppies they cross. In fact they're not on a train at all anymore. The railroad built to link Amestris to Xing has long since been buried in the Ishival sand. With the termination of the Ishival race, no one had enough man power to keep the rails in working condition.

Elysia squeals excitedly at the four horses pulling the wagon. Maes looks fondly at her, so does Gracia and the others in the wagon.

Roy...

If they ever get caught they would be tried for treason. The kindest thing they would do would be to kill them.

And Roy...

If he was caught and tried for conspiracy against the higher ups... Maes had seen the skeletons buried in the closet.

It wasn't pretty

Idly he remembered that it was Thursday, usually Roy would come over from the east to a random bar to drink with him.

Maes wondered who Roy was drinking with now.

_-_

_-_

There was the mark of ouroborous on the bottom of his left foot. Contrary to his stolen limbs, his actual skin was pale, ghostly, seemingly dead. That made the bloody mark stand out even more. He is a homunculus, yet none like they had ever seen before.

A homunculus that can use alchemy... think of the possibilities.

_-_

_-_

_With killing people comes the desire to bring them back to life. Whether that is a hidden remorse at taking another life, desire to kill that person multiple times, a way of playing god I don't know. Perhaps it's redemption to wash away the sins, heavens know rain won't be enough to wash the blood away._

_Sometimes if you heat the sand enough, it turns to glass. Add whatever elements to your flame, the source of heat, or even the sand, it becomes a different color. That's why whenever I combust something, it leaves a sheet of red glass so neatly covering up the horror that lies beneath. It could be an art form, but it's not. It's like a lie this whole war is, covering the mess up with a grander front, except the military isn't as transparent as my glass._

_-Ryan_

_-_

_-_

Return of Envy, the one who turned Wrath away from them all.

Of an alchemist named Crimson, the one who should have died a long time ago.

A homunculus named Greed, who desires immortality.

His master's pain,

It's her blood on the floor.

_-_

_-_

"Go to Dante."

"Teacher?"

A lonely alter, and blood, so much blood that covered the array on the island. His master's sin, and repentance. Her guilt of sending her child to an early grave, her guilt of killing her child twice. The guilt that is surely killing her as the missing organ is.

"She was my teacher long before your time... and she knew Hoenheim. If anyone can help you now, it'll be her."

"Will you be alright?"

There's still a trace of blood on the corner of her lips, blood and weakness she tries so hard to hide.

Hesitation.

"...Yes"

_-_

_-_

They are being transferred to Central, had the higher ups guessed?

Roy's eyes harden at the thought.

-

-

Deep in its lair, a lazy violet eye flickered open.


	5. Chapter 5: Light

**A.C.**: If wishes were horses then beggers would ride. If I could fly away, I would, but I can't, so I stay...

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

"You're Dante?"

A shriveled woman, frail, rather like ragged folds of wet paper. After all these years, her body is failing her, wrinkles and moles sprout up every which way. Her skin is mottled, her hair is gray.

She has the same scent of perfume...

Hoenheim...

Father...

"You must be Edward, I've heard of many great things about you..."

"Did you know Hoenheim Elric?"

A familiar smile, Ed feels sick.

_-_

_-_

His brother had been kidnapped. How a suit of armor could be kidnapped he didn't know. He knew that he had to find him however, had to.

He follows a chimera inside a bar called the Devil's Nest, and come face to face with the devil himself.

The devil's acolytes are more chimeras. Those who fought in the Ishival war and were condemned wrongly to death. Those who were supposed to have been executed years ago resurfacing as half human half animals.

What has the military been hiding all this time? Ed wonders as Izumi enters the fray. How much do anyone know of this? And more importantly, does Mustang know?

_-_

_-_

_Red stone, not quite philosopher's stone but enough. We're issued one each. We run out of one we get another, and another, then another. Whatever is left of the alchemist population uses one up in at least two days. The effects are astounding. One man can clean up a sector faster than ten, I can demolish a whole town, Ironblood can shoot down a whole population._

_There's fire everywhere, crying men, women and children. Dead people on both sides, genocide, suicide. Everything... and I... I killed them all. I'm no better than any of them. No better..._

_I am nothing..._

_Crystal wonders why I use so many up in such a short time. Even Crimson who uses it sun up to sun down doesn't use that much. It's a secret... I hope they understand._

_What's a person to do when they realize that the reality is but a distant dream in the makings. What to do when a person's hands are covered in blood, covered in blood of their own. Not enemies but those on the same side._

_They were innocent and they were not. They knew the consequences and despite it all, chose to pay the price._

_But they have taken my sanity with them._

_I contemplated suicide, ripping my arm off, all in a matter of minutes with a barrel in my breast._

_But then I remember **MY** dreams. And the farewells of Crystal as he pulls me out of my misery. He promised mother that he would protect me. I promised not to tell._

_In this world where no one understands... _

_There's no one else but yourself_

_I should have realized that a long time ago._

_My arm bleeds once more, it tells me that I still have things to do. I still have deads to bury..._

_But what to do when this is over?_

_-Ryan_

-

-

Edward suddenly realizes that this information is private, and he is the privy to the events that occurred in the Ishival war through another's eyes.

He shakes,

Disturbed...

Horrified at what this journal contains

Sand washed by the blood of thousands

Yellow and crinkled beneath the Ishival sun

He quickly rips the entry out, stuffing it in his pockets before closing eyes to calm himself.

Too many implications

But hasn't he learned already?

The truth is another form of a lie

But what if it's not?

What if the journal is true?

He squints his eyes shut and wills the words away.

But they won't

Not when he's seen what's at the bottom of the page.

-

-

_I will create the philosopher's stone_

-

-

The woman is kind, looks familiar. She has **_his_** gray eyes. Her replies are brief but satisfying, at least until they enter an oriental mansion full of odd trinkets collected over the span of a few years.

She asks him how he is, and how his family is. Then they get down to business, Gracia has gone to put Elysia to sleep and to freshen up. Extensive trips can't be too good for his earth bound angels. Neither is it for him but he could deal, he has gone through worse things before.

Her face is grim as she asks how **_he_** is. Maes is sorry he can't give a definite answer.

She starts on the history of Xing, the emperor who rules all and his many wives, concubines really, from every clan worth counting. The countries handsome princes, all vying for the throne. The beautiful princesses, little doll like girls promised to prominent heads in the court.

By this time Elysia is a sleep, a servant brings them intoxicating tea and Gracia has joined them.

There are many dragons, none like the ones back west, the great malevolent beasts that breathe fire. Here be dragons that are benevolent, kind, selfish at times but are for the people. Dragons with marvelous scales of a carp, same dragons with feathered consorts. The same that peer into his skin as she speaks...

-

-

He could never be like Roy.

He couldn't be calm, level-headed in desperate situation. Desperation sought panic, together fear and then the descent to madness. Tang of alchemy staining the air, coppery blood spilling on the floors.

His movements are jerky, rapid, the other's movements are smooth, almost artistic.

Yet in those precious moments Ed can see the weakness behind the 'ultimate shield'. It's the only thing that saved him as bloody corpses fell all around.

The dead make him feel queasy, he excuses himself behind a few crates. Al calls out hesitantly, Ed is sure if he could, his brother would be doing the same.

A reason why he could never be like the colonel

He wouldn't be able to withstand the burden of the lives of men placed on him.

Ed wonders how he got through it all.

-

-

_Alchemists are really disgusting. We seek out and destroy, we seek out only to bring them back time after time in a never ending cycle of death and rebirth. Even as we kill, we think of ways to revive someone, perhaps bring them back to beg them for forgiveness. To get rid of this burden known as guilt, to sleep a little easier at night when things are quiet. To retain whatever is left of our sanity in one desperate stroke._

_Funny, I've just described a phoenix._

_-Ryan _

-

-

"If you want to live a long and healthy life, I suggest you back out now. What I'm about to do... it might hurt, just a little." a devil-may-care smile is back on again but it does not reach his eyes.

His eyes had seen the corruption within the military, how the main pillars supporting it had crumbled to pieces one by one. How the most insignificant are raised to foremost positions because of they are easier to move.

Fuhrer is gone now, vacationing somewhere in the south. Though Armstrong's muscles will sorely be missed, it's the best time to set everything in motion. If the plan went through... well... he would be a fuhrer and justice would be flames, rekindled from long cold ashes...

Hawkeye stands by him loyally, so do others, he wonder's how he managed to gain all their trust. Mustang is tempted to cry out, to make them go away, knowing that he would be condemning them to death one by one. Until the only pawn he has left to move is himself.

"We're staying chief." says Havoc, flicking out the remaining cigarette butt in his mouth. "Because we believe in you."


	6. Chapter 6: Blaze

**A.C.**: Damn school... I reaallly don't like this chapter...

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

A letter comes through the chain of command, powdered with silky perfume to which Hawkeye takes a condescending sniff. Havoc jokes that maybe one of the higher ups are crushing on the dark eyed colonel, Fury naively bets a quarter of his next pay on it.

He has been promoted.

'_Congratulations on your ascension to the rank of Brigader General, we request your presence as soon as possible'_

-

-

He hopes that Al is somewhere, safe. He approaches the ancient place, where a scant few minutes ago, blue light had flooded out through the blurred windows. He opens the door and calls out, he hears no one except the aggravated breathing of the Ultimate Shield.

-

-

_War is almost over, we call all feel it. Crimson expresses regret, I ignore him and take my daily dosage of sedatives instead. The lanky blonde I met earlier, thanked me for saving him earlier in combat. I wasn't aware I was saving anybody, but I took the thanks anyways._

_Overheard Gran while replacing my red stone, apparently Crimson's antics are getting far beyond control to keep it covered up. It doesn't help that he's a natural show off, transmuting some poor soldier's body before throwing him to the sands._

_Gran plans to arrest him on charges of felony, of killing his fellow soldiers. I'd like to see how that works out, you can't just kill an alchemist. No one can except another._

_-Ryan_

-

-

Greed spills the secrets of the homunculi, their weaknesses, motioning to the seal aligning the floor and the ceiling.

He never mentions Dante's halved corpse.

"Homunculi can die..."

Homunculi were mortals, as demonstrated by Greed when he dissolved in to ashes.

The knowledge frightened him really, he had killed Greed.

He needed Al, desperately.

-

-

They pick up Winry at the teachers with the hitchhiker Martel in tow. The blond is outraged they had left her out of such an adventure. As Al attempts to calm the raging girl, in private, Ed shows Izumi the journal.

She flips it over and finger the papers.

Conflicting emotions cross her face as she opens her mouth and fails the utter a word.

"You should get going soon."

-

-

"Edward?"

"Yes?"

"His name was Ryan Mogust..."

The train's whistle blew loud in his ear.

"Ask the others... listen to what they have to say..."

-

-

Thoughts...

They wove in to lines, then planes,

Snaked around like dragons,

Erupted into feathers and ashes.

If...

If one left a girl alone,

If...

If one had quelled the desire to conquer the unknown...

If...

He would not be here...

Passengers boarded the train, they were at the border, the massive wasteland of sand laid behind them.

A tall man walked past him, smelling of elegant perfume masking an sickly odor beneath.

He looked again,

the man was gone.

-

-

All those ranking Major and above were gathered in a separate carriage, just in case of an ambush to which lesser foot soldiers would react and alert them to, giving alchemists enough time to deploy.

Roy stood up, face pale and sweaty, eyes darkening in shock and surprise.

"Kimbley... but how?"

His answer is a broadening smile.

-

-

_And so it has finally come to this point. With no more Ishivals to kill, Ironblood is just itching for more things to shoot. His favorite target these days seems to be the alchemists._

_Yes, everyone knows alchemists are dangerous beings. Ironblood is painfully aware of how close we are from lynching him one quiet night in his tent. So he is putting us down one by one, like dogs we are, pulling his weight around with the surefire promise of promotion behind him._

_Not that he needs to do so really, we're broken enough to do it by ourselves. What had once been proud men and women are now nothing more than fleshy shells. Alchemist mortality is the highest it has been, the only difference is that it's not the Ishivals this time. The enemy comes from within themselves._

_Still, there are others who fight back. Kimbley, once Gran's favorite, now about to be tried and put down like a rabid animal. Others in depression, those who consider retiring permanently, me, who wants to die._

_And yet the stone is so close to me, so close to its completion. The incomplete red stones have added to its strength, filling in gaps where there shouldn't be any. _

_-Ryan_

-

-

"_Maes, I've thought a long time about this and it hasn't been easy... but Roy... Roy needs to know... Roy can't live in the shadows forever... Roy can't... he just can't..."_

_Gracia wraps her arms around the older woman, Maes is reminded of how delightfully kind his wife is._

"_Roy is strong, very strong, but this secret... it will kill him. I trust that you know..."_

_Maes swallowed and nodded, once._

"_He needs to know..."_

-

-

"How? You're supposed to be dead?"

A lazy drawl, and a slow rise of eyebrows.

"That's not the way you greet an old friend..."

"You're not my friend, my friend is..."

"Ahh yes, Lieutenant Colonel Maes, traitor to the Amestris army." Kimbley barked a laugh, Armstrong looked disapprovingly at him. "Never thought he'd have the guts to do it, family guy you know?"

"Lieutenant Colonel Kimbley," says archer slowly, putting an emphasis on the first two words, "has been reinstated into the army after proving his royalty at the Devil's Nest."

Roy sits down heavily down on his seat and spat,

"Dead men don't prove anything."

"Oh contraire, I hear you're some hotshot in the military now. What's wrong? ..."

Kimbley never got to finish his sentence as the tip of his hair burst into flames.

"I suggest you shut up Lieutenant Colonel."

Kimbley bats at his ponytail and examine the damage shrugging.

"Pulling rank now are we? Oh well, that was to be expected. After all you're the..."

"Quiet Crimson."

Kimbley clams up immediately, Archer raises a brow.

-

-

_I'm alive, it hasn't ended yet_

_-Ryan_


	7. Chapter 7: Fire

**A.C.**: What do people of Amestris speak anyways? Hmm the encounter with Izumi was kidnapped from Kalika Maxwell's 'Gold and Charcoal'

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

"Who is he? How come we've never heard of him before?"

"If he's created the philosopher's stone..."

"His name sounds familiar."

Winry

"Familiar?"

"I sometimes have to organize records, some date back from way before... Ryan Mogust... I might have seen his name somewhere... we can phone grandma to find out."

"Makes sense doesn't it? Philosopher's stones, he would have to have lost something in order to create."

Ed leans back looking out the window sleepily,

"Ryan Mogust, who are you?"

-

-

_We all get promotions, or promises of one. All those who survived that is, physically and mentally. I consider it lucky that I'm writing in this journal at all, it's been so long since I've had a taste of normality, I doubt it rings a bell in that hollow cavern making up Ironblood's head. I doubt he shares the alchemist's guilt, I doubt that he desires to recreate those who we've killed._

_The stone's almost complete, I am ordered off duty, an unofficial time period in which the military weeds out the weak, the unstable that dares to try and overthrow the government. For now... I'll go along with what they have to say, I'm thinking of a vacation in the south, I've heard the women there are beautiful. Then perhaps I'll turn over to one of those automail cities, might find a good replacement for my missing humerus._

_-Ryan_

_-_

_-_

He rents a small apartment allowed in his meager allowances. He buys biscuits and suspicious looking jerkies that are beginning to look more and more like one of the stray dogs had played a tug-o-war with it. With rationing, he hopes that the food will last him. His contract with the landlord is a month, he's assuming the guise of a traveler who's seen the beauty of the city and has decided put for a little.

In the light his glasses free face was clean shaven, a clear cut difference from the Lieutenant Colonel who had fled from this country.

His eyes glinted gold in the sun,

He was staring towards the Central Headquarters.

-

-

The entry is strange, coated with a near undetectable layer of formality.

Ed is puzzled by the recent development.

Lately the pages had been sporting the smell of a cleaning solution not unlike ones that greeted them when they stayed at an inn.

And now this page... nothing

The smell skipped pages for some reason.

So far Ed had figured out that pages with blank spaces at the back carried the scent.

The ones written front and back did not.

Ed had taken his own notes of course, in his own codes. The journal had shaken him, greatly. He did not know how but he knew...

It wasn't in standard Amestrisian.

He didn't know if he should be troubled that it was in an unknown language or the fact that he could read it.

-

-

A grand ceremony, really, ones he had only dreamed about in his brief childhood.

Hawkeye to his right, Havoc to his left, he smiles politely as the officers come and go, even as eventually the fuhrer shake hands with him on how the country needed more young military minds like him.

He just bears it silently, slipping into a mask that smoothly covered up any lingering traces of discomfort.

He had to.

-

-

Ed is taking a nap,

And so is Winry.

Which left Al rather bored on the train.

As a suit of armor, he did not need to sleep.

As he was on a fast moving train, there were no cats and kittens to rescue and to rescue him from boredom.

Peering quietly at Ed's snoring face, Al quickly snitched (well not quite snitched) the scarlet covered journal off of his older brother's hands.

He knew from his past tries that he could not read the language but if he could just...

The book fell open in his lap

Nothing

-

-

Ed and Al receive a courteous welcome at the Headquarters.

Winry had excused herself earlier, seemingly uncomfortable about going back to Central. She said she was going to look for the Hughes' family, that had been an hour ago. They were now seated across a table, sharing lunch as the 'adults' shared a discussion over their heads.

Al tries to put a dinner roll into his body, for Martel who was still hiding in it.

"Alsphonse, you don't need to pretend around us."

Al can hear Martel silently cursing Riza Hawkeye as he sets the roll down.

-

-

While trying to file the report Ed found that he couldn't ignore the calling any longer. Entrusting Al to edit the script, Ed sets out on a hunt to for one of Mustang's crew, the only ones Ed grudgingly believes.

Within a few minutes, he rustled up Havoc, who was taking a small cigarette break outside. From the length of the cancer stick stuck permanently at the corner of the blue eyed blond's mouth, it seemed that it had been going on for some time.

He approached,

Then hesitated.

What if this was just like with any other leads?

What if he had to go on another goose chase cross country?

He couldn't afford to loose anymore time.

He hissed and bit his teeth.

"Hey Second Lieutenant Havoc..."

-

-

"They're starting to move."

"Are you sure?"

"Very, they now have high enough of a position in the military to throw sequential weight if needed to be."

"What about our allies?"

"The alchemist hunter has been effectively maneuvered, he is now currently residing in Liore."

"Good, anything else?"

A note of satisfaction,

"Lust,"

"Ah..."

A pause, then,

"Ever since the rouse with the fossil disease..."

Hesitation,

"Perhaps I was wrong in sending Envy."

Amusement,

"Watch her for a while, if she does anything to endanger our plans..."

"Yes mistress Dante."

-

-

_  
I don't know where I am exactly, somewhere in the south I'm guessing. I've seen soldiers returning from war, the Southern Headquarters must be close. I met a nice girl while I was in town, afraid I accidentally buried my face in her rather large 'assets' while I was window shopping. After a bitchslap, bitching, and oh more bitching, we decided to get tea. She introduced herself as Izumi Curtis, an apprentice of Lady Dante who lives in the forest not far away from here. I tell her I'm from the military, she seems to be surprised. She asks if I'm an alchemist and when I confirm it, I am confronted with a river of questions much like one of Strongarm's speeches. After a while she seems to realize what she's doing and stop. The blush looks really nice on her. She asked if I was going to stay around for a while, I said I was._

_She asked me to accompany her to Lady Dante's place._

_-Ryan_

-

-

"Who is the Phoenix Alchemist?"

The blue eyed blond is incredulous, his mouth parts slightly.

"Ahh shit boss... you really have a great timing you know that?"

Havoc looks around wearily,

"He's a taboo, we're not supposed to speak of him or suffer the consequences."

"But...!"

"The library probably has some stuff on him, I'm sorry boss." he grinds the cigarette butt under his foot and goes back into the building. "I'm not supposed to tell."

"But...!"

"Please don't ask again..."


	8. Chapter 8: Flame

**A.C.**: I hate uniforms... let's just leave it at that. And the alchemist names? Don't ask.

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

Library,

The beginnings for any pursuit of knowledge.

Making sure that no one was tracking him, Ed takes care to sneak into the hall of records placed next door.

The receptionist at the desk gives him an odd look for he was notorious for spending an unhealthy amount of time at the library.

But it wasn't a book he was looking for this time.

It was a person,

A person named Ryan Mogust...

-

-

"...Should I be worried?"

"I don't think so but he's pretty determined."

"I know that already, think he's figured it out by now?"

"Maybe... I'm sure he has his suspicions."

"hmm..."

-

-

He shouldn't be doing this...

Not in broad daylight.

But he had to...

He sneaks in the back door making sure that no nosy neighbor was staring through the window at that moment.

Wiping his brow he collapses as soon as he slips inside and proceeded to take a nap.

-

-

Riza frowns noticing that the newly initiated Brigadier General was NOT doing what he was supposed to and therefor NOT doing his work.

So what the hell was he doing?

He seemed to be writing, too long on one paper to be signing off paperwork.

Even Breada looks up to see his superior thoughtfully filling out a paper.

Black Hayate barks and shakes his tail,

Dinner.

-

-

_Lady Dante was a gracious old lady and complimented me on my feats at the battle front. She offered me a place to stay for the night but I refused, my excuse was that I had somewhere to be. She looked very disappointed and asked Izumi to walk me out._

_Now Izumi... well what a woman. If it weren't for that temper of hers, I would have happily committed myself to her, maybe. She asked me what being a State Alchemist like and I couldn't help but notice an odd glint in her eyes. I warned her specifically not to join. She protested a little but understood what I had to say. We parted at the train station, I hope we meet again._

_-Ryan_

_-_

_-_

He knew... knows? Teacher...

Book after book is tossed aside,

-

-

Dante...

-

-

Military records, officers, janitors, alchemists, experimenters, doctors...

The most recent alchemists,

-

-

Thunderblade and Smoke 1914

River and Chrome, 1913

He could see how fierce the competition was fierce, just as it was when he was accepted in to the Amestris Military as the youngest alchemist of the century,

And there he was...

Fullmetal and Shockwave, 1911

Further on there were some alchemists he though he recognized,

Emerald in 1910, a nice woman, a girl really, assassinated by the Ishival legacy. She didn't even participate in the massacre,

Also Brightwing in 1910, possibly the only year the two picked were woman, she was currently stationed in North.

1909, Screamer Alchemist, around somewhere in Central,

-

-

And... Flame?

-

-

That couldn't be right... does the military give out two of the same names? There were only so many to go on before they used them all but... while original was alive?

Ed didn't give it much thought.

There was another Flame Alchemist in 1894 along side Sword,

Traveling further down the list Ed discovered the one he was looking for.

Razor Alchemist and Phoenix Alchemist of 1897.

_-_

_-_

He searches the library and comes up with records showing the Phoenix Alchemist Ryan Mogust. What it doesn't show is what happened to him after the war. All it lists is that he was a legendary war hero in Ishival and had taken out a semi-permanent vacation out somewhere. From the talks of war veterans from Ishival, Edward learned that Ryan was presumed dead.

"Brother? Have you found anything?"

Martel seems to be elsewhere judging by the relatively hollow sound Al made when he softly bumped into a table.

"No," He throws the trusty records the last mournful look. "nothing"

-

-

_She looks fine, legs missing, a pinkie looking like a stump but alive. it's been a long time since I've seen her. She offers to fix my arm, I decline, she told me that she would be moving to Xing soon. She looked wistful, she looked lonely. I told her I would take care of the house, she told me to burn it when she was gone. She gave me a stone, no bigger than a blueberry, but it's the stone. She told me that it was mine, that I created it on the day I failed to create my father._

_She was crying, the second time I've seen her cry._

_She told me that my father is alive somewhere in Xing. (well no wonder my transmutation failed -.-;;)_

_She would go after him._

_She told me that my father was alive._

_-Ryan_

-

-

There's much missing in the middle, Edward's not sure if it is relevant or not but from what remains in the middle of ripped pages and ink stains is the fact that philosopher's stone are derived from human souls.

-

-

He knows that

-

-

That human transmutation will always end up unsuccessful because nothing equals another life, another soul.

-

-

Not even the stone themselves...

Does that mean that the Phoenix Alchemist had tried a human transmutation once upon a time?

-

-

Yes it does, he admits it there.

-

-

That homunculi are real, results from failed human transmutations

That in another life time, some time ago, Phoenix had failed in the transmutation of his father. How his mother had torched the wretched mound of flesh before it was a mere pile of ashes in the fireplace.

The first time he had seen his mother cry.

His mother is retired now

-

-

"Mom..."

-

-

Roy rubs his eyes, he's tired.

Or perhaps it's just the light.

There's no one left but him, there's no reason for him to stay,

But he does, no particular reason.

He spins the pen slowly on the curve of his index finger and the thumb, mulling things over.

Kimbley's return,

Archer's promotion,

_his_ promotion...

It should have been...

He shakes his head and rubs his eyes. He's been in office too long, the clock is pointing 11 o' clock.

The light reflects on the glass of the clock,

A flicker of fiery eyes,

Roy has a premonition.

-

-

The last entry looked somewhat recent. The black ink looked fresh to him somehow. The rest of the small book was blank paper, riddled with dry water marks and smudges of rustic brown. Edward has a suspicious inkling that the stains are of blood, but he knows, circumstantial evidence is not enough to try a person.

A father...

The fruity scent pervades his mind and he shuts the book and welcomes the darkness.

-

-

He wonders where Al is.


	9. Chapter 9: Inferno

**A.C.**: Meh...

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

Martel quickly snakes down his body, shivering as she curls up.

Alsphonse places his head back over his neck.

"Martel? What's wrong?"

-

-

Wasn't that the fuhrer? Why was he coming closer?

-

-

"Alsphonse,"

Martel's voice croaks, creaky like a rustic hinge.

"King Bradley... he's a homunculus."

The sword plunges into them both.

-

-

Al shivers as Mustang looks down at him,

That seemed wrong, he had always been taller than the Colonel-turned-General.

Martel's limp body is covered in a white sheet, a few feet away from him where he couldn't see.

He wants to let out a whimper, cry for Ed, do something,

-

-

Anything...

-

-

But when the blood, her blood,

God there was so much blood!

It touched him, his soul, on the seal...

It brought back memories, of another life...

His...

He could remember,

He could see...

The gate...

Mother...

There is a questioning air around them all, Mustang had just uttered a question.

Al shakes his head furiously,

-

-

Havoc sighes,

Riza calmly looks away.

Roy is understanding, he pats Al on the shoulders and leaves.

Al hadn't felt like that since...

Before...

He likes it.

-

-

"They are where!"

"Colonel Archer's orders sir."

"I don't care whose orders they are, cancel them!"

"But sir, the Elrics have already left..."

"Dammit,"

Fist meets wood,

"Dammit."

He looks at himself in the mirror and cringes, he should go home.

-

-

"We should go there, to keep an eye on things."

"She has given us orders to stay put."

"But if you do not send the army in time...!"

"Lust, patience is a virtue."

A short laughter.

"We are the cardinal sins, the complete opposite of virtue."

"She has given us orders to stay."

"That person... she does not know what is happening..."

"So you will disobey?"

"I will do as I like, Gluttony?"

The fat, not-quite-human shakes his head, giving out a low whine.

Huffing indignantly she leaves, leaving her two brothers to watch as she did so.

-

-

The rest of the pages are blank, drenched in the citric scent of something he cannot identify.

He brushes his teeth humming, just as the door opened to reveal a blond girl blushing wildly.

In her haste to close the door she accidentally throws the journal across the bathroom, scoring it neatly in the toilet.

"Winry!"

"Ack I'm sorry!"

Edward fishes the drowning book out of the toilet, already reaching for a towel to dry it off. Fortunately for him, he was relatively quick in rescuing of the journal and it retains minimal damage.

Getting out of the bathroom, he placed it on the table before drying the pages one by one.

And marvel in wonder at the language that it had been written in but he could not quite place.

Winry apologizes profusely before Edward absently forgives her.

He says something about clumsy woman and gets a wrench buried in his skull.

And as he approached the last pages he could not help but gasp in shock at the words branded anew on the previously blank pages.

-

-

The ride to Liore is brief, Ed is almost looking forward to seeing Rose again.

But strange rumors are circling about Liore,

How the once prosperous city is now in ruins,

How the army had taken over the people,

How Liore is to be the next Ishival.

-

-

Ed takes care at each pages.

It's not so much a word they are looking at now, but a scripture extended symbols.

An array.

The possibilities excite him as they piece together the pages, almost like a thousand piece puzzle, drawing the blue print on another paper.

They can believe.

-

-

They discover that Al can read the journal now.

-

-

The scuffle with Scar is brief but painful.

Lyla looks older, he is surprised to see her.

Seeing Rose with her newborn infant squeezes his heart for some reason;

She does not talk, Rose, the dual haired girl.

Her quiet mauve eyes are empty,

Devoid of life, devoid of laughter,

Devoid of hope.

Is the phoenix not the symbol for hope and rebirth?

Is it not the symbol for peace?

If the bird of flames had shown itself early on, why does it hide itself so?

-

-

Why is peace a tempting fairytale?

-

-

"Hey,"

Alone in the dark with the man who had tried more than once to kill him.

"Uh... yeah well... I know you've been going around a while ago, killing alchemists and all that well..."

Ed gulped uneasily and musters a brave face as crimson eyes glares at him from beneath the bone white 'x'.

"Have you ever heard of... the phoenix?"

Slowly, as if to weigh him silently against an invisible silhouette Scar speaks,

"...It's a legendary bird of mythical proportions, dying by fires of spice every five hundred years to be born anew from the ashes..."

"No... I meant the alchemist Phoenix."

Scar falls silent once more.

Ed has a feeling Scar knows a lot more than he was letting on.

-

-

The messenger is a tired little boy.

Mustang and his crew gives him a little food as he reports and relays what's been going on in Liore.

He saw an army enter the city tonight.

They all fear for the Fullmetal Alchemist.

-

-

"I'm home..."

A half mumble, it was a tiring day and it had been more than 48 hours since he last slept in his own bed...

The light flickers on immediately to reveal the black covered form of Maes Hughes.

"Where have you been! Do you know how hard it is to aim at the toilet without lights?"

"Hello Maes."

Mustang's reply is raspy and obviously tired.

Loads of paperwork, Hawkeye shooting at him every hour...

Havoc's smoking breaks, runaway Elrics and now...

Maes feels a little guilty.

"You should take care of yourself more, you look like hell."

Roy cracks a smile before dumping himself on the couch and kicking his boots off.

"Thanks."

A normal man would have been demanding what Maes was thinking when he came crawling back into the country, a normal man would have hugged his best friend and blubbered like a baby, saying how it was great now that he was here...

Not Roy

Never.

Flushing sound in the bathroom,

Roy nods off into oblivion.

-

-

He flips through the journal idly, he has not yet figured out what to do with the incomplete arrays on the back.

"Edward?"

The scent of perfume is intoxicating,

Overpowering,

Suffocating.

Edward snaps back into reality.

"I heard you were asking Scar about someone."

Lyla, but not really Lyla at the same time.

The dark haired girl-woman hold herself prouder, taller than he had left her back at Yoki's estate.

She now looks like a woman with a purpose, a specific plan in mind.

It makes his skin crawl and his innards writhe.

"Ah... you worked under a military official one time... ever heard about the Phoenix?"

A baffled look but Edward cannot figure out why.

He's pretty sure she's heard about him, most of the earlier generation had it seems.

"It is said that he created a legendary item..." Edward looks up at the young woman and slowly she continues. "It is also said that he is alive somewhere close by."

High pitch frequencies fall and rise through the air,

Screaming.

-

-

Bombs and bullets ripped through the air.

Crazed laughter of one Crimson Alchemist as he detonated everything on sight.

Pleased look of Colonel Archer as everything went according to plan,

Nervous faces of soldiers as bulky chimera's pads in between their ranks, hunting down the dusky skinned citizens of Liore.

-

-

They flee the buildings into an underground path where the most are drowned by a growing wall of translucent water wavering in the air.

Something somersaults inside it,

Wrath...

The dark haired sin is grinning viciously at him along with the more placid face of the one he thought he had lost forever...

-

-

"Mother?"

-

-

Flames arches up into the sky like some hellish wings hailing its glorious flames before them all.

It makes him nostalgic, almost brings tears to his eyes.

Almost,

Perhaps it's just the smoke that he breathes in.

One of the buildings crumble and collapse, the flames claw higher before waning into spots of fire.

Kimbley sees a fire bird out the corner of his eyes.

-

-

It can't be true, she was dead and they...

No he...

Al had no blame in this,

He brought her back.

No not her.

He delivered a monster from the gate,

A monster who was wearing his mother's face,

A monster...

He can't move,

That thing was created by him,

It's still his mother.

Wrath approaches from behind.

Lips part,

"Mom..."


	10. Chapter 10: Torch

**A.C.**: I had such a hard time writing this... I actually started to write backwards... from the conclusion to the later chapters --;;

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

"EDWARD!"

-

-

The smell of uncut grass is sweet to his nose, easy and warm to lie in. The sun breathes down, not too hot but hot enough that he feels comfortable in the evergreen field. His fingers pull at the green one by one, idly waiting for something to happen. The sky is welcoming, an open blue that is reflected in his eyes. Dreaming of shadow shaped clouds, he closes his eyes.

A hand is placed on his head, of his mother, a sister, a friend, a brother, a lover, a teacher, a student...

...a father...

-

-

"Sleep..."

His eyes feel like they've been pinned down by needles.

He can't open them but he can see the light peeking through the cracks of his lids.

There's a heavy hand and coolness, all in one, on top of his head.

He's bare and naked beneath the sheets,

He squirms a little, trying to stick a leg out.

"M..."

A gentle hand brushes his hair.

"Sleep and recover..."

-

-

Scar's missing an arm now, Kimbley laughs derangedly before collapsing into a heap.

Alphonse tries to run but finds that the mad bomber has attached himself to his armored foot.

"It doesn't matter now..." the gold eyed man whispers, rubbing his face against the cool metal. "You'll make the perfect bomb."

-

-

Strings of fear curl themselves around his feet, they have a good hold, they will flourish.

It is daylight, he finds Al. He gives Al a cuff to the head (which obviously won't have any effect) to make sure that he is there. They are now surrounded by sand, and soldiers.

Something is wrong.

They flee, leaving the desert behind them.

-

-

Later Ed realizes that the journal is missing. All they have left of their search for the philosopher's stone lies within Alphonse, a series of notes and the torn page in Ed's pockets.

-

-

"You alright?"

"I'll be fine."

"Roy... you can't do this."

"She told you?"

"Yes but that's not the point. Roy... this isn't even your country, why the hell would you want to save it."

"It is my dream Maes, I cannot let it go that easily."

"Then you'll choose death?"

"Yes."

"You fucking bastard..."

"Maes, why did you come back?" the dark eyed man turns, buttoning up his shirt. "I thought I told you to run, coming back here... you're endangering your family."

"Your mom is tough enough to take on the army, they're in Xing, they won't be able to move freely there."

"It hasn't stopped them from corrupting the government thoroughly here."

"Roy..."

"Why did you come back Maes?"

-

-

'I came back because of you.'

-

-

"The Elrics have betrayed the military."

Roy can feel a migraine coming on. He leaves for one night and already Elrics have done something near impossible to reverse. Frank Archer is currently in critical condition, no additional information has been released yet.

The fuhrer gazes at him at him silently, awaiting his response.

"I know where they are."

-

-

"_I forgot to tell you, there was no time but I don't trust the lines anymore than the next person."_

_A piece of the notepad waving in his face. Black ink tracing an array around..._

"_This is..."_

"_Didn't you notice? This is just a smaller one. They have created a larger, around all of Amestris." Hughes shakes his head, "Roy you cannot stop this, escape while you can, this isn't your country. There's nothing you can do to help."_

"_I'm still here, there are too many people depending on me."_

"_Then you and your crew can hightail out of here, the Elrics are smart enough to figure everything out."_

_Roy stares at him, pulling on the stiff blue._

"_You... you can't just throw your life away. You saved mine, now I'm going to save yours. Come with me dammit."_

-

-

"It's an array for the philosopher's stone." Edward's eyes glimmer in wonder, brushing a hand at the iron chest of Alphonse. "This... this is it, we found the way to create the stone."

The ripped paper is laid beside the notes in a bright contrast. The words seem sharper against the yellowing paper, like a black hole that will try to consume them all.

A smile breaks out, Ed cannot explain why.

-

-

"_No."_

-

-

Finding the Elrics was surprisingly easy, too easy. The trails were all too clear for them to follow and despite minor setbacks including Havoc and Fury, he and Armstrong are able to immobilize them through an alchemic teamwork, similar to one used in Ishival.

Roy smiles grimly as he approaches the Elrics.

The older of the Elrics glared at him defiantly. He was pretty sure that's how he must have looked when he became a State Alchemist.

He shakes his head,

"Why did you run?" Roy hisses angrily, Ed tense. "Why didn't you ask me for help!"

-

-

"The fuhrer, I've seen his eyes. He's a homunculus."

-

-

"_Why must you make everything so difficult?"_

-

-

Explanations and all else later, they are at the Rockbells. They meet the legendary alchemist Hoenheim Elric. The reunion is bitterly sweet, Ed is furious but Roy can sense something else underneath. Roy declines entrance out of respect for the family. Riza goes in to wash. Second Lieutenant Ross and Sargent Broch are sworn to secrecy before being dispatched back to Central.

Night falls quickly and before long he exchanges a few words with Hoenheim Elric. Not surprisingly, Hoenheim knows that the present fuhrer is a homunculus. Roy briefly wonders why the blond man hadn't done anything until now. The bigger man yawns before replying. Roy decides against asking the reason for his leave.

Roy notices the unsettling gaze upon his arm.

-

-

"Ah here it is... the records!" Winry presents him with the records spraying a plume of dust onto the blond's face.

"Ack Winry!"

But the girl happily hums along, flipping through the crinkled pages before ending it with a frown.

"Funny, I could have sworn I saw his name somewhere..."

Her eyebrows furrow and Ed quickly scribbles something onto a notepad.

"Find anything interesting?"

"Noo..." the word almost came off as a pout, "wait yes..." there's confusion written across her blue eyes. "Roy Mustang? Was here... a long time ago for... I can't read the words."

"What!" Ed swipes the records off of Winry's hands despite the protesting calls of her and Al.

He finds the page where Roy Mustang is listed as one of the patient in automail parts.

Something clicks in his brain.

Roy was Xingese... or at least part. According to eastern custom, you put the last name in front of the first.

"Ryan Mogust."

"Brother?"

"Ed? What's wrong?"

"Mogust Ryan."

Already the words are straining, scrambling, unscrambling, twisting around until it grabs hold of words he can recognize...

He tastes the name on his tongue and knows them to be right.

-

-

"_If there is a reason why I'm doing this, you know it lies buried in my past. I owe so much to this land, the people, my friends, mother... and you. I can't leave this place, not when... not when I can save it instead. Understand Maes, you promised to push me to the top, now I'm nearly there. Don't let me down."_


	11. Chapter 11: Pyre

**A.C.**: Hah, thanks for the reviews. Nice to know that people actually reads this :D No action in this one, mostly explanations. Mostly.

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

"Phoenix Alchemist"

-

-

"His name was Ryan Mogust"

-

-

"He's a legend,"

-  
-

"He's a taboo"

-

-

"It's said that he created a legendary item"

-

-

"He's still alive..."

-

-

"Ryan Mogust... the Phoenix Alchemist is you?"

-

A general of an army,

-

A cocky womanizer,

-

One who suffers...

-

Roy Mustang slowly nodded.

"The Flame Alchemist was my mother." looking back at Ed, he gently adds, "I took her name after she retired."

-

-

Children were precious, miraculous things.

She brushes a loose strands of gold from the cherubic face, wondering where all the time had gone.

A red dragon painted on the wall glares irately at her. She looks back at the giant gold eyes, her gray eyes softening.

The time had not gone anywhere, it was she who had moved on.

-

-

"Why didn't you tell us!" Ed snarls, furious at the older alchemist in front of him. "You could have told us...! You could have spared us from all this meaningless...!"

Mustang didn't even flinch

"Of course," Ed says bitterly, "You wanted to use me as your goddamned lapdog."

"I will not deny that you were useful but that wasn't my point."

"Oh and what was Flame? Or is it Phoenix!"

"Maybe if I had gotten to you earlier, yes, I would have stopped you. But Edward..." with one gloved finger, Roy taps the automail arm. "It wouldn't have necessarily done anything. You would have still gone on trying to revive your mother."

There is a shocked silence as Edward tries to recollect himself.

"You... you...!"

"Do you know why I was named the Phoenix?"

Edward shakes his head, somewhat thrown off guard.

The blond had wondered about that. Their names were not something given lightly to them, the aliases were chosen with care, like shoes of a horse... or a collar to a dog...

They were tailored to fit, just like Fullmetal and his affinity for metal, Flame and his control over fire.

Phoenix and miracles.

With a sad smile Mustang lay his gun down to lean against the wall. Tugging at the blue sleeves, he slips out his jacket before working on the shirt beneath.

Edward's face blushes a lovely shade of pink as the General frees one arm from the confines of his clothing.

The left arm is exposed to the nights air, the yellow glow from the window illuminating the web of scars that extends from behind the shoulders to arching well below the elbows.

"As you might have known already, I tried to bring back my father when I was eight. I wanted to know what he looked like, I wanted to see who it was that made my mother cry herself to sleep every night. I wanted to yell at him, I wanted to bring him back and kill him myself."

Edward's face pales marginally,

"I just wanted to know who he was..."

It is as if he has been caught in a whirlpool of _his_ life,

"I was young, I was foolish and I almost paid for it with my life."

His face was grim, tense, almost as if expecting a verbal attack from the short blond.

"Luckily, or rather unluckily, my losses do not have many outward signs."

The gloved hand brushes through the ebony locks.

"I lost some of the bones of my arm... and the rib over my heart."

Roy nods at the house,

"The Rockbells were as well known as they are now, I had the bone replaced. I was lucky I didn't loose my entire arm."

"But you use an array... you're useless in rain!"

Roy rolls his eyes at the word 'useless'.

"I'm getting to that part. Seeing what I created and killed, being chewed out by my mother didn't stop me. In fact it encouraged me further. In 1897, without my mother's consent, I changed my name and became the Phoenix Alchemist... it was raining that day..."

-

-

_It was raining hard enough to flood Amestris out of existence._

"_Roy? What are you doing here?"_

"_I'm doing it mom, I'm going to be a state alchemist."_

_The expression on his mother's face was enough to make him want to swallow back the words. But he couldn't turn back now, he couldn't, wouldn't. Hardening his eyes, he gave his mother a curt bow._

"_I'm sorry."_

_Neither knew who had said the two words._

-

-

"I was never useless in the rain, only afraid. Afraid of risking repeating the past, afraid I will become what I was. Afraid of the responsibility, afraid of what the word 'Phoenix' meant to me after all these years."

-

-

_He relished the attention he was given through the foggy vision. The rain had lightened, just a tad, but the cold drizzle was still falling, twisting down the collar of his jacket. The mud stuck stickily to the bottom his boots, he could see the fuhrer staring at him._

'_One day...'_

_There was a sign,_

_He tensed,_

_Then relaxed._

_He held out his hand and the world exploded around him._

_Later people would claim that the sky had burst into colorful flames. They went on about how a gigantic fire bird had consumed the boy in a conflagration of ashes. How despite of the danger, the boy charmed the crowd and kept the fire at bay. How the judges had named him on the spot, the youngest State Alchemist of the century, the Phoenix Alchemist. _

-  
-

"Do you see now Edward? Do you understand why I kept this away from you?"

Edward shakes his head once more.

"No," Edward answered hoarsely, "It doesn't matter now does it?"

Roy gave him another sad smile,

"It matters, just... not as much as it should."

-

-

She picks through the pages delicately, almost as if she was dealing with a rare orchid. Her fingers dance frivolously across the margins, eager but at the same time hesitant to touch.

She could already see the array, painted stroke for stroke like a masterpiece on the walls and the ceiling. The curves and twists took a life of their own, curling into feathers of mighty wings forming the magnificent image of a phoenix.

The phoenix...

-

-

The sky was inky midnight, only the stretch of stars illuminating the night. They stood side by side, neither saying a word, neither offering words of comfort.

"...I lost your journal."

"Ah..."

-

-

"He has returned."

A swish of floral perfume, ghost dancing in the moonlight.

"Yes"

She would no longer need Pride for momentary comforts... it had been so long since she had a lover...

"He won't be missed?"

"No, he will be tried for treason."

A smile, a dip to the floor and her hair brushing against the ground.

"Good."

"Of Lust?"

"Hmm..."

The Colonel-turned-General was an infamous womanizer in central, a coy look from Lust would have him wrapped around her razor nails faster than one could snap.

"She might still be of use, I will keep her for now."

"Yes mistress Dante."


	12. Chapter 12: Scorch

**A.C.**: It's really odd knowing that I will finish this story... so soon... well not for a few chapters but still... eh :) my longest chapter yet

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

**The New Fullmetal Alchemist- **Ahh thought I was writing better earlier -shrugs- anyways, I guess I wasn't as thorough as I was supposed to be. 

Hydrogen's highly flammable. My theory is that Roy wouldn't be quite 'useless' in rain because rain is well... water (demonstrated in ch.39 of the manga?). Oxygen promotes combustion so...

The idea of fire rain would be quite deadly no?

As for the Elric brothers, I've noticed that Roy sends them out (if they're there) on numerous missions that end up as nothing. I think I was trying to get Ed to ask why Roy did just tell them about what he knew instead of letting them go on a wild goose hunt so to speak.

* * *

"They could have gone North..."

"...No..."

"They would have headed for their homes..."

The words wash over his head. Already he can feel the noose tighten around his sweaty neck, ready to choke him alive. It is a small miracle that he is still standing here, listening to the leaders of the country talk over his head. He briefly wishes that he could wipe his forehead, his throat is parched. He must act now.

"Sir, King Bradley sir."

The blinds open, the fuhrer stands malevolently looking back at him.

-

-

Roy walks out of the room, proud as ever.

"General?"

Hawkeye quickly runs over to him with an inquiring gaze.

He makes a half-choking, half-shrugging noise at the back of his throat.

Hawkeye pulls out a light blue handkerchief from her pocket and tenderly wipes the sweat away from his face.

-

-

_He crushed his hand to his chest,_

"_I'm sorry mom"_

-

-

Years, decades, centuries had not changed who they were. Ironically, in this life time, they had retained their original forms... close copies anyways.

Dante gives out a false laughter as she demands to know the reason as to why he had left.

Hoenheim quietly explains they were not immortal, only assuming the illusion of one. How they would perish like many others before them. How, already their souls had begun to wear down, unable to sustain their host bodies.

He detects a desperate tone in her voice.

But that is before a familiar beauty glides down the stairs holding a squirming babe in her arms.

Tri...

_-_

_-_

"_Trisha, you are so beautiful..."_

-

-

The ivory face looks back down at him with her blue-violet eyes. Her entire form below her upper chest is a viscous liquid that wraps around him in transparent blue.

"Thank you, Hoenheim of light."

Dante walks towards them both, holding the dark haired baby in her hands.

"How low you have fallen, you're no longer a match for a homunculus."

The blond man's heart thuds,

Loudly.

Dante throws the child over their heads, activating the array on the crying boy's stomach.

He's at the gates, neither Dante nor the Trisha-look-alike by his side.

The door swings open to reveal thousands of eyes blinking hungrily at him.

"They'll be alright Trish." the shadows grab hold of him and pull him inside. "They're your boys after all..."

-

-

Lust wearily opens her eyes as the swords skewering her arms and her ouroboros is removed in a lance of lightning, making her fall on her knees before their oppressor.

The dull ache in her chest is not a pain, only a scant memory of when she was alive.

"You will help Wrath to capture the Elrics."

Lust shudders inwardly.

Gluttony ambles to her side, whining piteously.

-

-

A cigarette, despite the nurses dogged insistence that smoking is not allowed. A snap and the end of the cigarette curls up lightly, smoldering in fiery orange.

"No."

A slap to his head, courtesy of the supposed traitor.

"Idiot, listen!"

"General, you're just been called upon to fight at the Brigg Mountains concerning the numerous border skirmishes."

"Oh so the peace treaty failed?"

Sound of scratching,

"It is said that it never took place."

"Yeah, we had like what? **_A_** day of peace then everything went boom."

"You sound like Kimbley."

"Better Kimbley than that sicko Archer..."

"Could we please get back to the subject at hand?"

Silence,

"Kimbley would have been more useful, I mean Havoc disguised as me? Where did I go wrong?"

A great sigh from the only female of the lot.

"...So you would prefer to have a mad arsonist detonating everything on sight rather than a loyal soldier who actually follows orders and tries not to kill his fellow comrades?"

"At least Kimbley could pick up girls..."

"...!... I would be able too if you didn't stop stealing them!"

"Havoc! We're in a hospital!"

"So while we're signing all of us to the lunatic asylum on the other side of the city, Roy. Do you actually have a real, valid reason why you wouldn't want Havoc to take your place?"

The answer was prompt.

"Too dangerous, and he's too tall."

"Well I'm sure the legend of Flame and Phoenix has filtered down to overly glorified proportions..."

"Umm..."

"Exactly, they'll go in with all the pretense of finding some fire-breathing dragon only to find a blond who can't quit smoking? It wouldn't be a fight, it would be slaughter."

"...I'm so glad you have that much trust in my abilities on the field."

"General, to complete a goal, one must have to sacrifice a number of things."

"I don't want to sacrifice anything."

"Too bad."

Glasses pushed back up on the bridge of the nose.

"You don't have a choice."

"General," the meek voice of Fury, "Trust us."

-

-

"I do."

-

-

An unknown inn. Soldiers scramble below, Ed sighs a breath of relief.

Alphonse was gone, presumably, the letter. He clenches the piece of paper tightly in his hands in despair.

He closes his eyes then opens them.

Lust.

-

-

"They're moving..."

-

-

A woman sleeps fitfully on a train towards Amestris. It is a road many of her friends and family has taken before her. It is a dangerous road... Elysia is back with Roy's mother in Xing.

-

-

In a whirlwind of events, he somehow manages not being run through by Lust's nails but at the same time saving her from a beating by Wrath who Lust kills in retaliation.

Precious drops of red spill from the child like sin's head. The locket containing the hair of who Lust was supposed to be lay forgotten on the ground. The night is young and yet Ed feels as if it had been eons since the sun had set over the unyielding horizon.

His head begins to hurt.

The violet eyes gaze at him sadly.

He needs to find Al,

Again.

-

-

"Why would you want to be human? You guys seem pretty fine being immortal and all."

-

-

_Everything is on fire, it is an art._

_Every move, every spark, separates and divides each and every molecule from the other, one group creating the fire, others feeding it. Still others paint it, claiming his alchemy as original and his own._

_A brand worthy of the title Phoenix._

_His eyes sting in the heat, his flames are clean like his mother's. There is usually little to no smoke when the world burns, when the rain burns as it falls on the ground._

_People go up in flames without knowing why, before having a chance to cry out._

_It is an art of the finest caliber._

_He cringes away whenever Kimbley presents him with a demonic grin, wondering how and why the war brought out the worst in everyone._

_It is an art _

-

-

"It is a curse... being immortal. I would give it up... if only I didn't have to carry on this endless of charade of pretending to be something I am not. We are the failure of a human transmutation, we were originally intended to be whole human beings. Why else do you think we want to be human Edward Elric?"

-

-

They ran down the streets, Ed's boots thudding against the pavement, Lust's high-heels clicking in a sharp contrast against it.

-

-

"If I help you, will you turn me into a human?"

-

-

"Yes."

-

-

Al whimpers in pain as Shou Tucker shows him the alchemically created girl sitting limply in his arms. It's Nina, a little bigger, dead, but Nina. He shudders as the man... chimera talks in a sing-song voice to his daughter.

His mother steps out of the shadows. No, not his mother, Sloth who happens to wears the face of her.

She looks fondly at him, bearing a striking resemblance to his deceased mother.

"A pity... his will was not strong enough to bind the soul..."

-

-

"So this is the blueprint of the fuhrer's home?"

The rolled up paper is right beside his hand where the aged architect had placed it.

"Yes, very odd isn't it? It has the most unusual basement..."

"Well," coughs Hughes, clearing his throat. "Thanks for your help." he pushes forward and envelope with good sized bills stuffed in. The other man balks at this but he doesn't miss the tint of greed in his dark eyes.

"No problem, say... you look familiar..."

Hughes flinches. He had taken a risk, even with a disguise on to go parading around in the military uniform. No doubt there are wanted posters out there warranting his whereabouts.

"I get that all the time," Maes replies smoothly, swiping the blueprint off the counter. "I think it's the uniforms that do it you know? Just yesterday, I had a woman jumping in my arms exclaiming how glad she was to see that I had come back from very important mission..." Maes twitched his eyebrows suggestively.

"Ah well then, I must be confusing you with someone else I know."

"Nice doing business with you."

Clinks of ice on the cup.

"Anytime."

-

-

Fire flickers maddeningly, he lets go and it disappears without a trace.

He does this a couple more times, a trace of anxiety as he waits for Riza and Hughes.

His men had been sent to the border in his stead, injured Havoc and Fury posing as him and Riza, soon to turn the battle around against itself.

He experimentally snaps his fingers,

A tendril of flame blossoms over his nails, jumping over digits and eventually curling up in the air.

The lighter was his backup, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

Mentally he mulls over the different chain reactions that would create a combustion then gives it up.

If worst comes to worst, he could always try making it rain.

'A homunculus won't back away from flames boy... what's a little water going to do?'

He had seen the fuhrer's eyes, a long time ago... too long really, when King Bradley first got a hold of the military and ultimately the country of Amestris itself.

The lone turquoise eyes as it bore down on him when he produced progeny of flames that didn't just burn and blew things up into smithereens but rather moved like a living thing, a hunter, a chimera, a predator that hunted down its prey.

There was no fear, only...

What had he seen in them?

Hydrogen, Roy decides suddenly. Hydrogen made clear fire, Bradley might have seen most of the tricks he had up his sleeve but he had one more left that might just prove to be his greatest weapon against the dark haired sin.

Fire had condemned him, fire would be his salvation.

He would have to shed the name Flame,

And rise as a phoenix once more.

He clenches his fists, fully aware what is happening out there.

-

-

"Who is the Phoenix?"

"What?"

Edward is caught off guard, they were running, then suddenly the buxom stopped.

"I heard her speak about him, Roy Mustang, he is the Flame is he not?"

Flame, the Colonel, no, Brigadier General had left for Central. He and Al had sneaked in to the South.

"Yeah, he used to be known as the Phoenix Alchemist before... the Ishival Massacre."

"Ishival..."

Lust tastes the exotic word on her tongue, licking her black lips. There's something sensual about the way she does it, it draws Ed to her like a moth to a forbidden flame.

He hates it,

He blushes and looks away.

"What about him?"

Ed mutters, kicking the small stone on the ground.

"They were talking about him."

Ed raises a brow and starts walking in the direction they had been running in.

"She has your... his journal. Edward..."

She purses her lips just as he turns back.

"Never mind."

-

-

She twirls the necklace in her hand, the tiny speck of stone gleaming on the ring is threaded through. She can no longer make her former pupils do anything, but she can help them. And god help her she will help them.

To fix the wrong she had done by teaching them.

-

-

Roy feels a sense of dejavu as Hughes encircles the area of the fuhrer's basement.

Their eyes meet,

Gold against silver.

For the country they had pledged their lives to.

-

-

Edward looks at the writhing form in grief as he holds the array, the fragments of bone on one of the flaring lines.

Sloth turns transparent, her gloved hand trying to erase the thick lines of the sealing array.

Lust comments to the other female homunculus how the intricate designs had been carved deep by her claws as directed by Ed. The other sin twists and curls on to herself, trying to detach herself from the burning seal.

"Brother, what are you doing!"

-

-

To right the wrong he had done.


	13. Chapter 13: Charcoal

**A.C.**: Exam time and I'm... procrastinating... –shakes head-

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

Fire and gunpowder make up their dangerous world.

They who were now trapped in between the army of Drachma and Amestris…

An unlit cigarette was jammed into the corner of his mouth.

Blonde fringes falls over his eyes as he scans the map, hands itching for the nonexistent lighter.

"They have struck us here, here and here. We are defending here…" a thick finger points to a horribly conspicuous red 'x' against the non-descriptive blue and green tinted background.

A graying head shakes gravely.

"We are being pushed back far too quickly. Remember, Drachma is pushing from the other side as well."

"We just need more time…"

Havoc rubs his face wearily.

He bets Roy never got stubbles.

-

-

Roy sneezes into his best friend's face just as a nurse hands him a passing note.

-

-

They were children without a mother

She was a mother without a child,

In a way, it was this fatal combination that brought them close together.

The same bond that broke them beyond recognition at the sight of wild blue eyes framed by a mop of black...

The sin of wrath...

The 'Ultimate Merger'

Izumi closes her eyes.

-

-

_"You're not my mother! I don't give a shit about you!"_

-

-

"Shit, do you know how hard it is to sneak in hear without being seen?"

Riza makes an annoyed noise, Hughes raises a brow.

"She's jealous..."

Roy tries to explain, before the click of safety being turned off alerts him to higher powers behind him.

"Ah ha..."

Roy holds a hand out; pushing, perhaps the two of the only people he dared to call friends behind him and using himself as a human shield.

"Maes... I thought it was the Fuhrer's son's birthday today?"

A ruffle of papers as Hughes furiously flips through his pocket notebook and adjusts his glasses.

"What the hell was the definition for pineapples and tofu again? ...It is...!"

Dread fills his being and his shoulders sag at the sudden realization.

"Hawkeye, Hughes, get out."

"What!"

"General!"

"We've been had! Get out!"

"No! We can't leave you behind."

The coal black eyes are furious as they bear down on Riza Hawkeye.

"If you don't go now, this plan would have been all for nothing."

"Roy."

The Fuhrer's eyes were cold; he wouldn't wait for some tearful goodbyes.

'_There won't be any, not if I can help it.'_

"My men are out there dying; our friends are out there risking their necks because we're here. Now go, I'll catch up later."

Riza's umber eyes were watering but she stands firm with resolve.

Mustang watches sadly as she speeds down the hall and down the stairs.

'_None of you ever knew did you?'_

"Roy..."

Maes looked as if he would have liked to say more but instead he presses a silver knife to Roy's limp hands.

The touch is brief but electric,

It gives him the rush to go on.

"Good luck... _Phoenix_."

And as the former Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes races past him Roy holds out a hand at the approaching figure of the Fuhrer in all his might. Steely swords drawn, aiming for his throat.

There is a shrill screaming,

Roy snaps his fingers.

-

-

"Excuse me! I have to borrow this ca..."

Surprised faces,

Lieutenant Hawkeye and former Lt. Colonel Hughes.

-

-

"Get in."

-

-

_"Here chief, it's a good luck charm."_

_Havoc still walks awkwardly, the gangly limbs going astray like a newborn colt's as he tries to hug the wall._

"_I think you need it more than I do Jean."_

_Mustang gives a haughty, dry look at the lighter on the blonde's palm. The silver lighter blinks back innocently, benign and smooth against the flesh palm of his Second Lieutenant. The said man gives a sheepish grin,_

"_Well who knows, we never know when it might rain right?"_

_The edges of Havoc's grin is strained, Roy takes the lighter into his hands and replies quietly,_

"_Right,"_

-

-

Riza is driving,

Even with the heavy disguise, the pale gold fringes were a dead give away.

Ex-Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes looks grim.

Roy Mustang was strangely absent.

The pieces fall together as the hospital behind them erupts into flames

-

-

It was an abandoned church at the edge of the city where he was left off.

Irony fills him just as much as the light from the startlingly beautiful stained-glass windows gleam down on him.

They had come so far... but for what?

They had the solution at hand, but they didn't.

Ed claps his hands, a signature of the one who's seen beyond the gate.

The signature of the ones who were too proud to see the whole picture

Before the alter, a door slides open.

-

-

"I must say, I've always wanted to know what would happen to my body if it was to be put through combustion."

Bradley peels the flint woven glove away from Roy's hand, taking care to carve it off from the flesh, the patented skill evident in the fact no marks were left behind aside from bruising from the darker fingers.

Before the Xingese could raise a hand, a sword is stabbed clean through the left wrist.

"I have the 'ultimate eye'... I see all possibilities."

The dark skinned sin's face was dangerously close, the mark of the ouroboros magnified and in place of where the turquoise iris should be on the left eye.

Roy spits into the homunculus's face,

He doesn't look surprised.

Instead, he pulls the renegade soldier to his feet and kicks him forward... in the direction of the headquarters.

Corpses lie all around at their feet,

Roy can't help but think of Ishival.

He can't help but transmute the surprised sin's body and blow it up into pieces.

-

-

They salute each other,

"He'll make it, I know he will."

-

-

"_Why do you kill people?"_

"_The same reason we all do, to survive."_

"_But you don't... it's... it's not right."_

_A shrug_

"_Do you eat meat?"_

"_Huh?"_

_The question is repeated slowly, softly._

"_Do you eat meat?"_

"_Yeah..."_

"_See, you kill to eat."_

_A protest,_

"_I... I didn't kill..."_

_A smug smile_

"_Ahh but that's where you're wrong... it's your fault that some poor poultry, beef, or pork is dead, just because you couldn't keep your bloodied hands away from meat..."_

_His hands are shaking,_

_The mouth nibbles the earlobe, _

_-_

_-_

"It's all... your fault..."

_-_

_-_

"_Get away from me."_

_The array on the hands flash at his eyes, waving lazily in the air, at dinner, he does not touch the overcooked meat presented to him and instead buries it in the dust when no one else is looking._


	14. Chapter 14: Cinder

**A.C.**: I should be studying... really, really studying . ; Stupid formatting doesn't let me put exclamation marks next to question marks

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

"What are **_you_** doing here!"

-

-

"_You know if you do this, you'll never become a Fuhrer."_

"_It's ok, the only reason I wanted to be the Fuhrer was because I wanted to help people."_

"_You're too 'nice' for your own good. Your 'subjects' do not deserve you."_

"_How many ranks do you think they'll demote me?"_

"_Don't know, I'm pretty sure they'll take away that shiny watch of yours."_

"_Mhhmm"_

"_Doesn't matter if you're an alchemist anymore anyways right? You've chosen another path."_

"_And so I have. Ever wonder what might have happened..."_

_-_

_-_

"_Yes..."_

-

-

Ed was at a loss, who to save?

His brother

Or his superior?

Dante clicks her tongue teasingly as she rolls the crimson stone in her hands.

Al is still struggling in his alchemic bonds on the floor. Gluttony approaches the younger Elric, his mouth agape with his thick tongue bloated and swaying in midair.

"My last stone," Dante remarks fondly, at the incapacitated General on the floor. "I was saving it for an emergency but after seeing your skills, your potential!" she kneels down by his head, "I think you are worthy of my last..."

The rich lining of veil and lace lap against her thighs,

The puffs of perfume heat the air.

The stone is visible even at the angle his head is at.

The item is red, almost pretty Roy thinks.

All thoughts flees his mind like scattering butterflies as Dante jerks his head backwards, eliciting a gasp at the rough treatment.

He can't see anymore but he can feel...

The sensually sweet power of the red stone rubbing against his jaw line...

He can feel the not-human-sin's breathing hitch up a few notches as he comes close in contact with the stone...

He can feel the one in his own arm pulsing frantically, trying to bear a hole in his skin to unite with the other...

How long had it been since he had to replace the bones of his upper arms?

Without a word, Fuhrer King Bradley, the homunculus Pride, guides the blade across the pale pillar, slitting Roy's throat.

Ed screams.

-

-

"_I would have died,"_

-

-

The Fuhrer wife is a plump, round-ish woman sporting a crown of mousy blonde hair.

The son is a wide eyed boy barely ten,

He does not share any common features with his mother, nor does he look like his father.

So the rumors were true then, the fuhrer's son was indeed adopted from elsewhere.

Hawkeye gives the duo a steely smile as Hughes slips inside.

-

-

"_I wanted to thank you for that..."_

-

-

Roy begins to thrash madly, blood bubbling up his wound and mouth.

Foam gathers at Mustang's lips, his tongue can be seen lashing out in suffocation.

Roy catches Bradley in the eye, the one with the ouroboros. The sin grunts but does not loosen his hold.

"Be nice..." Dante says soothingly,

She holds the stone above the Brigadier General's torn neck.

-

-

"_Not a day passes without being reminded of what I could have lost..."_

-

-

"Brother! The General!"

-

-

"_Oy Roy,"_

"_Hmm?"_

"_Why did you give Kimbley a burial?"_

-

-

Havoc tears the wig off,

"I can't do this dammit! He was right! I can't do this!"

Strands of black fall on the dirt before blowing away.

Fury looks at him wearily, he looks tired. They all are. The normally boyish face even sports a few whiskers now.

He swears he can see silver hair in the crop of black.

Breda looks over the wall of sand, towards the mountains where cannon fire booms in the distance.

Vato Falman sighs,

Armstrong lays a heavy hand on the shorter blonde's shoulders,

"Calm down, you'll do fine."

Bullets are thick in the air showering down like a hail of metal amongst them all.

"You have to."

-

-

Alphonse cries out frantically as Gluttony approaches, drooling before the living stone. The acidic saliva laps at the floor, eating the carpet, tracking a half melted trail of dots leading towards the armor.

Edward inches his hands out, reaching for them,

At Alphonse who is being gnawed and chewed on by Gluttony.

At his superior, finally dying after so many aesthetically careless brushes with death.

-

-

The General's resistance is at best, feeble. His eyes roll towards the Elrics, in a silent apology that he can not help them.

The corners of his lips are red,

The stone is held over him like a bloody cardinal.

'_Sorry'_

"No! Don't!"

-

-

A moth flies, bouncing off the glass bulb over Maes' head. After a few more bumps it falls to the floor, slightly burnt but alive.

What was it that drew moths to a flame?

Though in shades of brown, the darker eye like marking is almost beautiful as it flutters balefully against the dusty floor

A circle, which had been a part of his life as much as it had Roy,

The crisp edges shiver before dying down.

The moth is dead, Maes captures it in his hand.

-

-

Ed thrashes beneath Envy who socks him for a good measure.

"Shut it shrimp!"

"Who's small enough to fit through the cracks of the floor and stay there! Dammit bastard General! If you die I swear...!"

"He won't die..." sneers Dante, she cups her hands and the philosopher's stone melts into a red pool in her hands. The viscous matter quivers in her hands, almost as if afraid of what is about to come.

"He shall be reborn, like the phoenix he once was, is and forever will be..."

Dante releases the stone, which trickles like blood, settling into Mustang's neck, wound, flesh and blood.

Roy gurgles unintelligibly; his eyes still have the dark, guilty look about them. Ed would like nothing more than to get up and hit the General until the emotion disappears.

But he can't.

Because he is weak,

Because this is the reality and here, they are all too doomed...

-

-

"_Because the dead don't bury themselves... people bury the dead... unless you were in Ishival. Because I remember... once upon a time Kimbley used to be like me, and I him. Because is what I could have been..." _

_-_

_-_

"_Because he was my friend."_

-

-

"_Because we're all in this war together."_


	15. Chapter 15: Ash

**A.C.**: I should be studying... really, really studying . ; Stupid formatting doesn't let me put exclamation marks next to question marks

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

Roy cries out, feeling as if his head has been split apart with a wayward ax.

The slash on his neck, if anything, widens further up the width of his neck.

Blood pours down his collar, lapping at his chest and eating away at his clothing.

His flesh bubbles, flaking off like sand off of a candle in the desert, or like insects in a tent gathered around flame at night.

Bones come apart, stripping down to the marrow, a reminiscent of his attempt at human transmutation.

And through all this, Roy realizes he is awake and seeing it.

He is repenting for his sins.

The extensive list that starts with the creation and death of his would-be-father to the present where the Elric boys will be a little more than sacrificial lambs in a petty love affair between the frightful union of two souls.

It is then Roy realizes that he does not want to die.

Fire burns wildly within him, this much he knows.

But this time, Hughes won't be here to save him.

He grapples the muscular arm with his skeletal hands, willing whatever that is left of his body, soul and mind to lend him strength.

For once his alchemy fails him completely.

The spot of flesh he touches briefly smolders in yellow flames before dying down to a small patch of black scabbing over,

Then nothing,

Just like his existence.

'_I'm sorry'_

He can hear Ed and Al screaming out in unison as Envy cackles madly, holding Ed's head in place to watch his superior change before his eyes.

But even hearing fails as his ear canal melts into his skull, meshing into the side of his face.

He closes his eyes and curl into a fetal position as the bones pop out of their sockets to shift anew.

The metal bleeding dry into his veins, the philosopher's stone becoming his blood, complete, unlike those of his would-be brothers.

Vision grows cloudy and dark

For a long time he can't see, hear, touch, taste nor feel...

But he can remember, and for the fragments of his conscious soul, that is enough.

'_Sorry...'_

At last when his spine reform themselves into a graceful arch with a wet snapping sound, he jerks his eyes open and skewers Bradley's stomach with his bare hands.

-

-

"_...he shall be called 'hope' for all those he have taken, and all those he will give to me."_

-

-

"Hope, the Ultimate Sin..."

-

-

The newest homunculus is quiet; he has not yet uttered a single word. His hand slides out from Pride's stomach in a shower of red.

The incomplete stone spills out, but he isn't particularly interested. He gives an experimental lick before smearing it on the floor.

The red solidifies into red stones and quickly soaks through his skin.

King Bradley flinches before straightening himself; they can all see that it takes some effort. The eighth sin's eyes are mysterious, but there is a tone of mischief in it. The older homunculus backs off wisely and looks towards Dante for orders.

The newly named Hope delicately picks himself off from the floor.

Bradley takes another step back.

Languid like a cat, he stretches his limbs, mildly interested in his retractable claws and the hardening skin. There are two red circles on the back of each hands connected to a red line that extends towards the shallow dip of his throat where his neck met the body.

But no one is certain if Dante's ploy has worked until the dark, gray-violet eyes shine from beneath jet black bangs.

The crimson mark of ouroboros; of a winged snake eating its own tail circling around a pentacle.

-

-

Edward feels like he has been punched in the gut.

Edward can't meet the not-Roy's eyes, the gold orbs stray down the prominent hipbones outlined against the washboard stomach. Down the tight leather pants, further until he feels as though it his own head being ground against the blunt heels.

"Roy..."

The sin's head turns...

The wicket violet eyes flash.

-

-

Dante gives one nod and it is all the turquoise eyed fuhrer can do to keep his pace steady as he walks out.

-

-

Riza hands him her gun wishing him good luck. Others are here and she is lost in the crowd, trying to evacuate the fuhrer's family. The fuhrer hasn't been seen yet, Maes has run down the basement according to the blueprint.

The candles on the cake burn brightly

-

-

There's a delicate smile on Dante's face. One of pride. The sin stands up from the caked blood; he gives himself one look over before flicking flakes of deepening red off of his pants.

The clicks of his heels are loud as he turns to look at them all.

Edward cannot figure out why Dante has done this. By all rights she should be focused on transferring her soul to a new body. Not doing more alchemy that would surely accelerate the rate of decay.

The youngest sin, _'Hope'_, he looks like Mustang.

-

-

The fuhrer stares at the reflection upon glass. No, not a fuhrer, no longer. The country was done for, and he as well would perish along side it not too long after.

His body had aged, still aging. His once invisible homunculus body had decayed away unlike his siblings'. Much like his creator, only his expanded to the atrophy of the body due to age, not because of the irreversible damage to the soul.

He wondered if he had a soul.

All pretenses of control, the 20 year's acting as a reigning 'king' would finally come to an end.

Staring at his one eyed mirror in the dancing light, he realizes, perhaps he is the most humane one of all. Already, he feels the claws of death ensnare him around their fingers after his desperate hold on life of sixty years. He can no longer move freely as he could way back when. He tastes mortality, the sickly sweetness of it, he is a human, and yet he is not.

He is an oxymoron, a parody of a living thing.

A mere shadow, a shade, a puppet in the control of its puppeteer.

It is these thoughts that make him more human than he can ever try and attempt to be. He has made a mistake,

A knife buried in his eye, he falls backwards. The elevator door slides shut and the swords are drawn.

-

-

With an enraged howl Edward knocks Envy on to the floor, punching the still formed cheeks as the familiar alchemic light shifts the homunculus' face from one to another.

"Edward stop this."

It was Marco, no response as Edward socked him smartly across the jaw. The newly born 'Hope' freezes nervously.

"Edward."

Hughes,

With a strangled cry Edward hit him again.

"Stop this!"

His mother, the same face Sloth had shared.

"I've killed the one with my mother's face!" Edward howls, slamming his fist into the hollow cheeks,

"Edward!"

The colonel-turned-general-turned-homunculus,

"Easiest. Face. To. Punch!" Still there are more, Envy has more forms than Edward has hairs on his head. "Why won't you show me your face you coward! Show. Me. Your. Face!"

There's a nasty grin on Envy's face as his face freeze in his most familiar form.

"You want to see my face! Here it is!"

Edward gasps as the light clears.

It was the face of a younger Hoenheim, so human-like and familiar that Ed...

There's a blade sticking out of his stomach.

"Brother!"

He falls limply backwards.

Envy is laughing, Hope's face is unreadable.

Rose's eyes loose their glassy look. Her hands unconsciously clench tighter around her child.


	16. Chapter 16: Dust

**A.C.**: I live on the other side of the world, they don't speak English but they're absolutely crazy about it as with any other Asian countries. Point, I don't need to study English. Second point, a trick question involving a strange word in the obscure language and it floors me completely. Thus I got a question wrong. I mean thus, this is why I hate my life.

I like the broadband connection ;/

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

Ed falls over backwards.

Dante feels her smile growing, the sharp corners stretching almost painfully into her cheeks. Her face grows hot with anticipation, the thought of another 20... 30 years added to extend her life.

The foolish humans would create more homunculi for her. And now, she had an endless supply of the philosopher's stone at hand, the ultimate sin, Hope.

Research could be done later to figure out how to extract the artifact bit by precious bit. Until that time there was always the Elric boy...

Blood rushes to her dead veins as she plans things out, she can hardly keep herself from laughing out loud.

Gluttony grasps the spiked shoulders with pudgy hands,

Al has stopped crying out for his fallen sibling.

In a flash of blue lightning, Gluttony backs off from the armor body of Alphonse Elric. His lower jaw has disintegrates off of his face, allowing his tongue to fall through the gap before the facial structures realign itself into flesh and bones.

The voracious sin approaches the armor bound soul once more but the damage has already been done.

Dante's mind is numb,

"Wha... what are you doing!"

The glowing red marks stands vividly against the gray cast steel, Alphonse walks towards his dead brother.

"No he's not, see?"

Envy backs away from his prey; the sticky blood clings on to the sin's feet. The cape of crimson is spreading around the body.

The metallic fingers caress the blonde's face before drawing back.

"He's still warm..."

With a strangled cry, Rose leaps towards them. A dusky skinned hand uncurling towards the duo before Dante's paler ones stop her in an iron hold as she wrenches the younger's wrists, her blue eyes flashing in anger.

"I'm going to bring him back."

Al's voice was an echo, filled with fanatic hope.

Hope reaches out, yearning.

-

-

"Ah, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, how pleasant to see you again."

The battle had moved upstairs, Hughes being backed into every tight corner before breaking free with a spontaneous blade.

The eye patch has long been discarded; the ouroboros eye rolls madly in the eye socket.

The neck heals gradually, so do other wounds. Within a few blinks, you could hardly tell any slashes or wounds had been there.

A homunculus is immortal

"But surely..." Bradley in front, dodging a knife. "You did not expect to take me down with a couple of knives..."

In a flash, homunculus Pride pins the hand to the wall with a sword. Hughes gives out a short scream before biting his tongue and shoving a shotgun into the fuhrer's stomach to shoot.

There was some blood as the six rounds he fires bury themselves in the aging flesh of the dark haired sin. Blood speckles the corners of the mouth and the nostrils.

When the sound of empty clicks replace the thunderous shots, his hand falls in empty despair and the gun along with it.

He had failed once more...

What's revenge if you fail to achieve it?

"Brave, but foolish. Not the greatest of combinations..."

-

-

The half-android turns his eyes (both flesh and metal) on the backseat, towards the startled blond lieutenant staring boldly at him with her burgundy eyes.

"Riza Hawkeye?"

Shots ring out and her driver collapses face forward in an instant. She rolls over, flat on her side as the bullets fly overhead and hits the opaque windows at her back.

The first bullet merely strikes a spider-like web in the glass.

Second, third, fourth, the ones that come after shatter the glass.

She feels the sharp shards fly across her face and stays down, until Archer's body creaks away into the dark.

She brushes away a stray lock and droplets of blood. She reaches for the gun on the still warm corpse. She tugs the small handgun free from the belt and kicks the door open.

She checks her surroundings, making sure the shadowy shapes in the gloom are not actually Colonel Archer ready to shoot her down if necessary.

Riza runs towards the fuhrer's mansion, her pumping heart already fearing the worst.

The night is beginning to wane.

-

-

"Why are you doing this Lieutenant Colonel? I can guarantee a public execution for you if you are lucky, years worth of confinement in the labs underground if you're not. As for a certain little girl in Xing... I'm sure I can arrange something."

Maes raises a bony hand towards the bulging neck, eyes wide with a fierce storm of emotions brewing within.

"Don't you dare... don't you..." his hand falls back to his side. "I could never forgive myself." his breathing comes in ragged gasps, "Knowing that I was so blind as to let him die..."

He couldn't admit it, he wouldn't! Not Roy, Roy wasn't dead!

Not...

Dead...

But the drying blood on the sword, the blood that was not his, only confirmed what he already knew.

-

-

His voice was silky as he plunges the sword right over the heart.

Remains silky even as Maes Hughes' screams rose above a high octave when the blade bends and attempts to carve out his heart in between the ribs.

Silky, even as the dark mustache tickled the unshaven face and the dark haired sin breathes out the words,

"Give my regards to the Brigadier General."

-

-

"Father?"

-

-

King Bradley stiffens, and then straightens up with a smile.

It is a heavily patented one, a mask that slips over the wrinkled face with ease.

How had anyone missed it?

The artificial settings of it, the fuhrer's smile.

One not directed at him but nevertheless freezes his innards as he hangs on the wall.

"I caught the rat."

The wide eyed boy's face breaks into an idolizing joy. It makes Maes wince to look at the naive innocence of the boy.

He is still stuck on the wall but the homunculus fuhrer as taken the sword pinning his hand. The one in his chest is still in place. The dark haired sin pauses before sheathing the blood stained steel. He then approaches is awestruck son who holds a bag in his small hands.

"What is he then?" Maes manages to bite out, "Isn't he a foolish human too?"

The little boy looks confusedly at the trespasser.

He has seen this man before; he was on one of the wanted posters out on the streets.

"Salem is a good child."

The fuhrer puts his hand the dark haired boy's shoulders and freezes as he squints open one normal eye and grits out, "Salem... what have you done...?"

The boy looks horrified. Hesitantly, he takes out a small item from his bag. A rag wrapped something that prevents Bradley from moving.

"You...!"

Pride attempts to strangle the life out of the boy, only when he cannot move anymore does he slam the comatose boy to the wall. It is then that Maes plucks the sword out of his chest, swallowing back the burning bile building up in his throat, running over to the boy laying face down on the floor.

King Bradley is visibly sweating; the strain on his aged face is evident for all to see. Maes picks up the skull from the bands of cloth, feeling the smooth bone beneath his fingers. The turquoise eyed sin cringes away, had he been a lesser creature, he would have slunk away hissing in contempt.

"How many times..." the gold eyed man's voice falters but his hands are steady, the glint of jagged knife flashes copper in the yellow light. "...Do I have to kill you before you die?"

Maes throws the knife, Bradley gurgles as he falls over backwards. Maes plunges the blood speckled sword in the fuhrer's chest for a good measure. He heavily crushes the skull beneath his foot.

-

-

A rustle in the olive leaved bushes; Riza pulls the safety off and aims towards the sound.

Gracia Hughes runs out, there are leaves in her hair. From the way her chest is heaving, once could deduce that she had run a long way.

"Where is he?"

-

-

In disgust and contempt, Dante flees the magnificent hall, trusting the homunculi to follow her by themselves. In a way, she is right; Gluttony follows a short time after.

Rose backs away, cowering before the two remaining violet eyed sins. Only Alphonse stays oblivious to all this, transmuting Ed's flesh until there is a new arm and a leg to replace the automail.

Envy looks disgruntled and is looking towards the direction Dante went off in. The direct usage of the gate energy unnerves him badly, but the youngest of them all, the newly born Hope, watches in rapt fascination.

Ed's eyes are hazy with death, and all who have seen what lies beyond the black door now stand before it.

-

-

Maes stumbles out in exhaustion. He defeated the fuhrer but it meant nothing to him. He wanted to explore what lay below the surface but he can't. It is all he can do to balance the limp body as he walks out the door of the mansion.

Archer's mismatched eyes glare at him.

In some ways, Maes is glad.

-

-

Up ahead, they can see the odd form of Frank Archer standing before the fuhrer's residence. Riza stops Gracia with an arm before shooting. The metal half of the face turns towards them and so does the rest of the body. The mechanical arm whirls before dying down.

The Colonel is dead, he falls face forward onto the road.

They climb up the stairs to the immobile form of Maes Hughes lying beside the equally still body of a boy they know as the fuhrer's adopted son. Gracia breaks into a sob and kneels before her husband. She pushes the bloodied face into her lap and cries his name out over and over again.

Riza loosens the clothing before searching for a pulse. She shakes her head furiously but thinks that she can feel a weak beat running below the skin. She checks the little boy whose neck is starting turning black and purple from recent bruising.

Salem's still alive.

"Maes..!"

"Maes...!"

The voice rises into a screeching wail

"MAES HUGHES!"


	17. Chapter 17: Smoke

**A.C.**: hah... exams are over –waves a white flag-

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

**The New Fullmetal Alchemist**- The question was "what is the main idea of this passage" but they used a thesis-esque word in place of the main idea... the funny thing about these exams is that you can usually add up how many ones, twos, threes, fours, and fives you get at the end and guess... but this time it was pretty uneven. Like seven fives, and five threes out of a 25 question exam -.-

* * *

"I've been here before haven't I?"

"Well we've all been here before, even you, even if you don't remember."

The shorter sin sits on the floor, jaws on his hands as one eye swivels towards the other.

"Where's the gate?"

Envy shudders, just not visibly.

"You don't go looking for the gate kid, the gate comes to us."

-

-

Hughes opens his eyes and find that he was in a room of light. The streaming rays of gold to which the gates of after resided ominously in the middle. He licks his cracked lips, running his tongue over the crazed surface before attempting to move.

He falls back towards the ground with a sharp gasp, the wound over his heart was bleeding madly over his clothing and the chest area already soaked in burgundy. He looks at his hand, pierced beyond the bone, gritting his teeth at the amount of red that came off on it.

"Mr. Hughes!"

Heavy footsteps of armor, the one that he never thought he'd hear again.

"Alphonse? What are you doing here?" He gladly accepts the leather and metal hand that is offered to him. "Where are we?"

Alphonse looks around nervously, or as nervous as a suit of armor can look.

"I'm not sure; I think... we're at the gate."

Hughes draws a sharp breath.

The gate,

He had heard many talk of it; many who dared to talk of it but would not elaborate. Mustang himself had once told him that he had seen it, a structure of darkness with thousands of eyes...

Then Hughes's eyes are drawn to the blond fuzz in Al's other arm, the still and bleeding form of Edward Elric.

"Ed!" He drops to his knees immediately, placing the index and the middle finger at the base of the blonde's neck to seek out a pulse, anything to indicate in anyway that the boy was alive.

Al pulls away from the former Lieutenant Colonel,

"That's why I'm here, I'm the stone you see Mr. Hughes... I'm going to bring brother back"

Hughes' eyes widen marginally,

The gate was right beside them...

-

-

The other violet eye blinks open, rolling in anxiety

"It's here..."

-

-

"No need for that Alphonse..."

A raspy voice and click of heels

"General?"

The Roy look alike is there, dark and foreboding against the golden background.

"Ahh, no."

Beside him is a sick looking Envy, who was sweating in nervousness as he realizes just exactly where he is

"The gate is here...! Where, where's the bastard dammit!"

'Hope' looks amused, but there was some heaviness to the youngest homunculi's form, an undefined weight that clings on to the dark shoulders.

"The gate..."

Hope walks over to the two humans and a soul. And past them to lay a cold hand upon the intricate designs of hands on the dark surface. The black metal pulses like a living thing beneath his fingers.

Hope lets out a brief purr, a sort of a cooing as if to pacify an unruly child. Eyes half closing he thrills at the gate, tracing the dark lines.

He stops,

He steps aside

"KYYYYAAAA!"

Just as Envy came barreling forward to wrench the doors open.

Hope smiles and holds his hands out. Just as the door opens and the blue violet eyes blink up at the light and at the pair of stunned violets, grinning fiendishly as the shadows encloses over Envy's slight frame sucking him in.

In Hope's palms is a perfectly shaped half of a red stone, rolling delicately over the curves.

-

-

"No need Alphonse Elric... no need for needless sacrifices."

He can't explain why he knows them all, just the reason why he can't explain why he is doing this. He is a sin, but he is hope.

The ultimate sin.

He is a phoenix.

He takes the prone form of Edward Elric and stretches him out fully before the black doors.

The stone in his hand glows with alchemical power before dying down, the crimson glow of the legendary artifact transferring over to the dead teen's in a string of light.

Red like blood,

Like an IV tube, feeding Ed back into life.

Golden eyes jerks open to soft hair falling on an achingly familiar face.

He is smiling.

-

-

_'Who's smiling...?' _

-

-

Ed flexes his newfound arm and leg, about to thank the sin when the dark haired homunculus turns on Alphonse, punching through the chest piece with the fingers poking out the other side.

The steel wrought body disintegrating in a flash of white lightning.

Ed screams as Al's body is obliterated under Hope's hand.

The metal arches fell like heavy feather towards the floor, chiming like tinkering bells as they made contact.

Ed freezes,

Can't move except scream and cry, hearing nothing except the roar behind his ears and the yells of the Lieutenant Colonel who was now dying.

The part with the blood seal, formed in a rough heart in the taking of it, is still smoking in Roy look-alike's hands.

The gate opens and the seal dissolves into dust,

Ed falls dumb as the bony body of a child is thrown out of the darkness,

As the soul replaced itself in the rightful body

Hope is walking towards Hughes, his heels still making the clicking sound

Only then did Ed move,

Only then did he throw himself above Al's naked body and sob in relief and joy at his brother's return.

-

-

A cold thumb was placed on the bleeding eye,

The wire frame and the shattered glass was left forgotten on the not-quite-floor, digging into the Roy-homunculus' knees as the man's sweaty forehead was placed lightly against the still colder lips.

"I haven't forgotten, god I'm so sorry Roy, I'm sorry I left you, I'm sorry."

The apologies were mere whimpers bubbling at the back of the older man's throat.

A blue light

Signature of those who had seen beyond the gate and lived to tell the tale, much like the Elric brothers, much like...

"I'm not Roy."

Hughes is crushed, so is pseudo-Roy.

There is something about the man,

Something that transcended past the grudging obedience he had held briefly for his mistress.

"I was supposed to push you up from the bottom."

"I'm sure you did."

There is a strangled laughter,

"What the hell am I supposed to tell your mother?"

"I don't have one."

"You... I'm sorry"

Violet eyes lightens,

"Don't be..."

Hughes' vision clears, his eye, along with the stab wound above his heart heals...

Hope stands before the gate, facing the three humans struggling to support each other before him.

"Roy no..."

"Bastard General... what are you..."

There is an unidentifiable grunt from Al, but the frightened gray eyes tell him enough.

"The one you call Roy is gone, but he has a message for you..."

The doors had not closed with Al's entrance, the hungry eyes are still looking at them as predator might do to prey. The eyes are telling them that they are famished... oh so empty...

The rasp of the homunculus' voice had clears

The Colonel-turned-General's voice comes forth

"Tell the ones that I love... my story..."

The eyes shriek in glee as the shadow hands reflecting the colors of space catch hold of the youngest homunculus' arms.

"Tell them... that phoenixes never die."

The doors close

-

-

Thomas Hughes snarls and throws his gun down as they approach, grinning maniacally.

All of them hold some type of weapon

No guns though, at least none in sight

And him with his fists.

He likes the odds, really. He would have ran except that there was a really nice wall blocking his only escape route that didn't involve plowing through a human wall of lethal weapons.

One of them spits off to the side, leering with a gap-toothed mouth.

He should have asked Gracia to marry him.

"Well, well officer, it seems as though you're in quite a predicament."

"Thank you for your concern gentlemen," grits Hughes, curling his fingers tighter. "But I think I can handle myself..."

"Oh we fully expect you to..."

But before the other man could carry on with whatever he was going to do to him, blades stuck out of the shadows, decapitating the leader.

Few of the gang members at the back scream in terror and flee. The others are soon to follow but the stragglers are swiftly cut down.

Blood shines in the light as it floods the narrow strip of ground.

Trying to bite back the bile gathering in his throat, Thomas snuck a quick peek at the stranger to see that he was holding his hand out, black blades extending from it.

Some type of swords, from fingers?

Nails, Hughes decides, extendable nails that somehow the man was able to retract. Perhaps one of the secret projects of the government he has been hearing about through the grapevine. Whatever he is, he is grateful.

"Thanks for saving me..."

The other man looks uncomfortable Hughes realize,

The tantalizing violet eyes were cast downwards,

'He must be cold... dressed in only that...'

The other man didn't look German, or even Jewish. He looked exotic, almond eyes and paper and ink skin, totally foreign and out of this country.

There was one time he had...

Where was it again?

Japan? Yes...

The Asians, the man before him looked Asian.

Hughes strips himself of his uniform jacket and places it on the shorter man's shoulders.

The man looks up at him, cat like pupils widening.

"Uhh are you alright? You're not from around here right?"

No answer, perhaps he couldn't speak German?

-

-

"What's your name?"

At this so many thoughts streams into the homunculus' mind. Roy, Ryan, Colonel, General, Flame, Phoenix, Hope...

So many names, many grand ones, titles really,

Hollow, lacking substantial meaning, he had many names and thus none.

He'd have to earn a name for himself.

"I... my name is h... Sorrow."

-

-

He is amazingly fluent in the language, Hughes replies in a small 'oh' before tucking the jacket closer on the smaller form.

"Weird name, did you know that sorrow actually means sadness, grief here?"

-

-

"Yes."

-

-

"I see..."

-

-

"Have anywhere to stay? Because if you don't well… you saved my life and all."

Violet eyes look up,

"Hughes..."


	18. Epilogue

**A.C.**: And here's the final chapter... I decided not to wait till next week to upload it... heh, had fun writing it... think it messed up my writing style somewhat... meh but that's life. Hope you enjoyed... almost 20 chapters in the expanse of four months I've been doggedly chasing this project. Maybe I'll write a sequel someday detailing the life of homunculus!Roy at the other side of the gate but till then... I have to finish the stories I've abandoned in the past few months.

And I need to get out of this chair and open the window.

Thank you all for reading!

**Summary: **Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...

**Timeline:** Sometime before Hughes is dead.

**Warnings:** oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?

* * *

It has been two years and there is an empty grave in the cemetery to commemorate the general who gave up everything for his country.

Ironically enough, it is where Hughes would have been had he been killed that fateful night Roy Mustang saved his life.

The reinstated Lieutenant Colonel Hughes has now been promoted to the rank of Brigadier General; the rank, once upon a time, his best friend had held.

He brings fresh lilies from the shop down street, (a quaint place really, a site of one of Roy's many victories) an inside joke from the legacy Mustang took with him to the gate.

The sun filters down from the soft-edged blinds with snowflake cut outs. Hughes blinks blearily, casting sleep from his eyes as he raises a hand to block out the light. Elysia is contently asleep cradled in his arms. She is a precious seven-year-old now, what Hughes wouldn't have given to be able to shove her innumerable pictures in Roy's face...

The gold eyed man drops a kiss on his angel's forehead before leaning back on the couch. Gracia comes out from the kitchen and wind her arms around his neck.

He smells of lilies, she could almost feel jealous.

Almost

"Are you alright?"

But he is lost to that day where they had dethroned the 'king' and made it back alive. The gold lined hours when the two Elrics regained their bodies with tales from beyond. The day he had to replace his glasses and found that his left eye had a perfect vision.

Gracia Hughes knows this look; it often makes him look sick with longing and anguish that leaves him moping for the better part of the day.

"I'm sorry."

And her grip tightens protectively, just a little. He lays a smooth palm on the side of her face, tilting his head back till he can see the lovely blue-green eyes framed by mousy blond locks.

"There is hope..." he whispers intensely, the golden rays illuminating the living room further. "...Roy's still alive out there..."

The sun must be playing tricks on him again.

He sees a phoenix out the corner of his eyes.


End file.
